Three hams walk into Near-Fest and leave with fewer radios, more stories, and an AllStar hub to prove it

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
As you might have learned from the back story
here, we're gonna get into alittle bit of near-first
discussion next on Live Free andHam.
Hello everybody and welcome toLive Free and Ham.
I'm your host, Eric CallSignN1JUR, and this is our weekly
show where we discuss ham radiotopics in New Hampshire, New
England, and beyond.
We're thrilled to have you guyshere.

(00:21):
Uh, and so whether you're aregular listener or you're
tuning in the first time, thanksagain for listening to the
episode.
So, uh with that, as I saidalright, I introducing myself.
I'm Eric, N1JUR, and I'm with myillustrious host.

SPEAKER_03 (00:34):
It's Paul N1OG, the Garouch.
And Todd WNSTJ.
It's Philly General.

SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Still a general, but loving it.

SPEAKER_03 (00:43):
Loving every minute of it.

SPEAKER_00 (00:45):
I love it.
Alright.
So, as always, before we like toget into our topic or say
something extra with Todd there,and then maybe the topic after
for the so it tickles yourfancy.
Um, you know, we like to catchyou up on, you can always head
over to our storefront uh atlivefreeandham.com forward slash
shop.
Check out all of our awesomemerch there.
I am wearing our Be Like BobPatreon uh shirt, and at the

(01:07):
bottom it says, you know, livefree and ham member.
Bob is our uh great friend andone of our Patreon, first
Patreon members to support thechannel.
And we love Bob.
He's been great, he's an awesomeguy to hang out with.
And so you can pick up thisshirt and many others uh over at
our shop there.
And you know, as always, if youif so interested, and I don't
have one with me, is a baconhammy.
You can go pick up our littlebacon, our little uh bacon.

(01:30):
We can pick up our littlehammies there and turn it into
bacon if you chose to, but youcan you can dull those out.
You know, if you uh don't knowwhat those are, those are our uh
you know version of the old umuh ducks for jeepers.
We like to do that for hamradio.
So if you find a ham radioperson in the wild with their
antennas and you want to showsome love, you can pick up a few

(01:51):
of those, put your call sign onthe bottom, and put it on their
dash or put it on their car doorhandle or walk over and hand it
to them and just say, Hey, I seeyour antennas, Mr.
Cool Guy.
You know, you're just like me.
So, you know, that's one way.
It's way better than trying tofigure out how to write your QSL
card on there and give them afive-nine when you don't
actually make a contact withthem.
You know, it's a big mess.
So it's all simple and easy.

(02:12):
So, you know, if you want toconnect with our community, and
I'm throwing Paul like curvesleft and right here, he's like,
when do I hit the buttons, guys?
Uh you can connect with ourcommunity, and you can do that
through our live stream, whichthis month uh is uh all and
done.
Um, but we'll be coming at onein October.
So make sure you stay tuned forthat.
That'll be our near fest livestream.
Uh hopefully uh you'll uh youknow, if you're a Patreon

(02:34):
member, you're gonna get thisnotice already.
Uh so you won't have to worryabout it.
But pay attention to ourDiscords uh for any of those
future updates.
Um and we always like to say uhyou can reach out to us via SMS,
email, or leave us a voicemailat 978-233-1142.
And again, all those wonderfullinks are in our show notes of
every episode, so you can'tmiss.

(02:55):
And if you want to support ourshow, you know, you can be a
Patreon member, just like Bob.
Um you'll get tons of freestuff.
Um and as always, there are allour Patreon members, and we keep
adding to those ranks, and Igotta keep getting those updated
for Paul there.
But uh, you get access tounfettered content for shirts
and t-shirts and discounts, andit list goes on and on and on.
Um so all you have to do is headover to our website, click on

(03:18):
that Patreon link, and come bepart of the show and help
support us because we love doingthis stuff, and we want to
continue it.

SPEAKER_04 (03:23):
And as Bob always says, You can join for as little
as three hours a month.
It's not a big expense.

SPEAKER_00 (03:31):
No, it is not, and Bob is so true on that.
So, yeah, help come support theshow.
Um, and as always, you canalways head over to our Discord
too and come join us there aswell.
And all those links are down inour show notes.
And so for this evening, we donot have anything in WinLink.
We do not have anything in themailbag.
We do not have anything eithervia Carrier Pigeon or any of
others.

(03:51):
And don't even think about dogood because I don't think we've
done a do good in a long time.
I'll maybe we'll just have tocome up with something.
Who knows?
But you know, if you feel socompelled, feel free to email us
your do good story.
Feel free to email us anyquestions or comments or
feedback that you want uh for usto discuss on the next show.
Uh and as always, we'll be gladto share it with you.
And we want to be able to justhelp you guys out.

(04:11):
So dare you exactly.
Uh how I dare extend the invite.
So or just tell us, you know,you know, our refrigerator is
running and we need to renew ourcar, uh, our radio warranties or
whatever.
So with that, let's kick thisthing off and we're gonna go
right into uh everyone's and nowa little something extra with

(04:38):
Todd W1STJ.
All right, well, you've heard ithere.
This is where uh we help youstudy for your extra class
license because that's reallywhat this show is about.
It's not about Todd getting hisextra, it's about you getting

(04:59):
your extra or your general orany of those things.
We should just start toincorporate all the general
technician questions there.
What can you do about that,Paul?

SPEAKER_02 (05:07):
You know really.
Oh, all we gotta do is uh is ispick one for the night.
Uh we could do a tech one night,a general one night, uh, extra
different.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
How more confusing is that gonna be for you, Todd?

unknown (05:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (05:22):
Well what would be absolutely hilarious is if we
all got a tech question wrong.

SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
Yes, I a hundred percent agree.
Which once Todd finishes passinghis extra, maybe that's what
we'll do in the future, just tokind of spin it up and make you
know interesting.
So all of us test against it.

SPEAKER_03 (05:39):
With Eric since he's the tech guy.

SPEAKER_00 (05:42):
Yeah, okay.
I'm technical in terms of youknow skill set, not not not
studying questions.
So yeah.
All right.
Well, you know, as you know, therules here, we study, uh, we
help Todd uh pick threequestions, test his knowledge,
hope he gets his upgradesomeday, someday.
Um and so if you want to followalong, you'll head over to
hamstudy.org, which is the beststudy tool on the market, no

(06:04):
matter what anybody else says.
Um, you know, and it's always anawesome resource to help you
prepare for all your tests, andthey are doing awesome stuff in
the community that will help uhcontinue to further ham radio
along.
So it's always, always supportedin the Livery and Ham community.
And so with that, I hand it overto our VEQizmaster.
Paul, take it away.

SPEAKER_02 (06:25):
All right.
So, Todd, uh tonight's firstquestion comes from sub-element
number two.
And the question is which of thefollowing is a characteristic of
the FST4 mode?
Is it A variable transmitreceive period?

(06:47):
B seven different tone spacings.
C, all of these choices arecorrect.
Or is it D, four-tone Gaussianfrequency shift keying?

SPEAKER_03 (07:03):
I don't even remember this question.

SPEAKER_00 (07:06):
I don't either.

SPEAKER_03 (07:09):
Like D just seems like it'd be the right answer,
but it almost seems like it'stoo easy because I would have
thought C would have been theright answer just as it seems
too easy.

SPEAKER_00 (07:19):
Well, right.

SPEAKER_03 (07:24):
An A, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (07:28):
Have you have we even used F?
What is that?
I don't even know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 (07:33):
I honestly we'll we'll have to find out when we
get into the uh more informationafter Todd giving the answer.

SPEAKER_03 (07:39):
I'm gonna go with D.

SPEAKER_00 (07:41):
I I I know I like C just because it's gonna be one
of those things that just likesays, sure, why not?

SPEAKER_02 (07:50):
All right.
Well, Todd said D.
D is incorrect.

SPEAKER_03 (07:55):
So you can't oh, you could be correct.
IOC is right, it does have phonetorn with a frequency shift key.

SPEAKER_00 (08:05):
What the hell is it has to do with WSJTX according
to my quick Google search, butall right.

SPEAKER_02 (08:11):
So the FST4 mode has several characteristics that
make it unique and effective forLF and MF band communications.
Here's a breakdown of eachcharacteristic mentioned in the
question.
Number one, four-tone Gaussianfrequency shift keying,
four-gFSK.

(08:33):
Uh FST4 uses a modulation schemecalled 4GFSK, which stands for
four-tone Gaussian frequencyshift keying.
It's redundant, but thank you.
Uh this involves four distinctfrequency tones and Gaussian
filting.
Filtering is applied to minimizebandwidth and reduce
interference, enhancing theefficiency of the signal

(08:56):
transmission.
Uh variable transmit receivedperiods.
FST4 offers a variety oftransmit received periods,
allowing users to choose frommultiple sequence lengths
dependent on their needs.
The available periods include15, 30, 60, 120, 300, 900, and

(09:18):
1800 seconds, providingflexibility for different
communication scenarios andsignal conditions.
And then you've got uh sevendifferent tone spacings uh
corresponding to the various uhtransmit received periods, FST4,
also has seven different tonespacings.

(09:39):
These tone spacings are adjustedto fit the duration of the
transmission sequence, ensuringoptimal performance and
sensitivity for each specificperiod.
Since these are allcharacteristics, all of these
choices are correct.
So your your memory aid, FST4,four answers are correct.

SPEAKER_00 (10:01):
Here's where FST4 is actually used.
And God, you know, heck, I wouldhave never like bothered to even
pay.
I'm looking at my WSGSTX, and ofcourse, guess what's in the
mode?
FST4, W2 as well.
You know what bands it supports?
Gigahertz.
That's why we're like, we don'tplay in that space.
So, you know, if we were big,you know, dish guys and did

(10:21):
microwave stuff, yeah, that'swhere that played.
Not my role park.
Well, that's all right.
Going back to FTA.

SPEAKER_02 (10:33):
All right, so Eric's got one, Todd's got zero.
Question number two for theevening.
Which of the following digitallogic families has the lowest
power consumption?
Is it A C MOS?
B E C L.

(10:54):
C, a shot key TTL, or is it D,an NOS?

SPEAKER_03 (11:02):
Wrong button.
Yes, you can.
Because you're gonna want to.
Do you know this one, Eric?

SPEAKER_00 (11:09):
I remember if it was, I thought it was CMOS, but
shot key T at T L Sounds.
Yeah, that's the one I think itis.
C.
I'm gonna go with CMOS, butokay.

SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
Well, Todd says shot key, so we're gonna click on C.
And C is incorrect.
Eric said CMOS and CMOS.
I'm on fire tonight, my friend.
Is correct.
Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 (11:36):
The memory is working.

SPEAKER_02 (11:38):
Yeah, there you go.
So for your explanation, CMOSstands for complementary metal
oxide semiconductor, is adigital logic family known for
its very low power consumptioncompared to other logic
families.
This is because CMOS circuitsonly draw significant power
during switching when thetransition transistors are

(12:00):
changing states from on to offand vice versa.
And have negligible powerconsumption when in a steady
state, either on or off.
Um yeah, so for fullyunderstanding these types would
require a lot of reading.
So this one you'll most likelyjust need to remember.

(12:20):
But for many that are familiarwith computers, the term CMOS
may be familiar because it'sused to store BIOSettings on
most computer motherboards.
All right, Todd, you're strikingout.

(12:40):
The third and final questioncomes from sub-element number
one.
So you should be able to getthis one.
The question is on whatfrequencies are spread spectrum
transmissions permitted?
Is it A only on amateurfrequencies above 420 megahertz?

(13:03):
B only on amateur frequenciesabove 144 megahertz.
C only on amateur frequenciesabove 50 megahertz.
Or D only on amateur frequenciesabove 222 megahertz.

SPEAKER_03 (13:23):
2182?

SPEAKER_02 (13:25):
222.
222.

SPEAKER_00 (13:28):
20 megahertz.
20, what is it?

SPEAKER_02 (13:30):
20 centimeters.

SPEAKER_00 (13:34):
Yeah, something like conversion.
Whatever, converted.

SPEAKER_03 (13:39):
I'm gonna say C.

SPEAKER_00 (13:42):
You, sir, I would say are correct.

SPEAKER_02 (13:48):
All right, so Todd and Eric are in agreement that C
is the correct answer.

SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
Oh wow.
I gotta hear it.

SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
But it's not good song.

SPEAKER_00 (13:58):
Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
Oh, it's 220.

SPEAKER_01 (14:03):
What?

SPEAKER_02 (14:04):
Okay, so there you go.
Correct answer is only onamateur radio frequencies above
222 megahertz.

SPEAKER_00 (14:11):
What the heck is spread spectrum?

SPEAKER_02 (14:13):
So uh spread spectrum uses a wide bandwidth,
which would cause too muchcrowding on the relatively
narrow bands below UHF.
Uh C FCC rules 97.305,authorized emission types.
Uh your tip SS222, the twos arespread into two two two.

unknown (14:38):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (14:39):
I mean, if that helps you.

SPEAKER_00 (14:42):
I don't know how that one.
Apparently it's not that studyhint is not helping us because
we didn't retain it last time.
This question maybe came around.
Wow.
Wow.
Okay.
Please hit me, sir.

(15:03):
If I could only get AI toactually make Todd look like
Meatloaf, but with Todd's face,and then put a little label
above it that says two out ofthree ain't bad, that would be
the next t-shirt.
If we could figure that out, soI'm gonna throw that out to our
listeners here.
So if you this is a challenge.
If you can make an AI image thatlooks like Todd's face but

(15:25):
looking like Meatloaf, and thenat the very top at a curve or
whatever you want to do, it saystwo out of three ain't bad.
I will send you a copy of thatt-shirt.

SPEAKER_02 (15:34):
I would almost I would almost be willing to bet
that there's probably a meatloafshirt already in existence with
like his outline on it.
And so we just need tosuperimpose Todd's face.

SPEAKER_00 (15:47):
Yep.
And it's gonna look it's gottalook like it was done, like
there's you can't see littlelines, you know, it's gotta look
crisp and clear for a t-shirt.
So there you go.
Uh throw out the gauntlet.
So with that, if you're on thejourney to study, like Todd and
all the rest of us here for yourtechnician general or extra
class license, well, then as wealways said in the beginning,

(16:09):
hamstudy.org is the place, andit's the most best, awesomest,
excellent resource for gettingyour ticket.
So again, uh, if you've receivedmaybe your license or upgraded,
uh, let us know.
We want to recognize you on thenext episode for your hard work.
And you can always email us atlivefreeandham at gmail.com or
give us a call at978-233-142-1142.

(16:30):
Or Paul, did we get any anyrecent ones come out yet?

SPEAKER_02 (16:34):
Uh nope, not that uh not that I've taken part in.
Um there is a a Toads Clubhousesession tomorrow night.
Uh I think there's only oneperson testing so far.
Um and then um in two weekswe've got the local session.
So hopefully we'll get some uhsome good uh new new licenses

(16:57):
and upgrades out of that one.

SPEAKER_00 (16:59):
You you you should take all of those old tests you
printed and have Todd take themjust to see if he can get that
one question that actually islike broken or taken out of the
question pool.

SPEAKER_02 (17:09):
Well, I I haven't I haven't tossed those uh those
exams yet.
So I do have uh I think I have15 uh of each element.
So yeah, Todd Todd can just sitthere and just take test after
test after test.

SPEAKER_00 (17:23):
We we should have like we should do like a skills
competition at the next 24-hourpoda as kind of a joke thing and
like give like stupid prizesaway or like little trophies,
and we should have everybody sitin a row who's in the
competition and take the test ofwhatever general or whatever,
and the one who passes it winsand gets to like you know get
the extra points, and those thatdon't, you know, end up getting

(17:44):
like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 (17:45):
Shame.
Shame, exactly.
See all these see all theseextras not passing the
technician course.

SPEAKER_00 (17:53):
I do you uh you depending on when you do that, I
can only imagine the level ofalcohol content in people's
blood systems as to whether ornot that'll actually work out
well.
All right, man.
Well, hey, just planting ideas,guys.
You know, 24-hour podo is likewhat eight, 11 months away?
It's coming up.

(18:14):
Oh god.
All right.
So in our usual format, let'scatch up with our ham radio
weeks.
How is your ham radio, Paul?
What have you been up to?

SPEAKER_02 (18:24):
Uh well, um, so I I I didn't do a ton of ham radio
this week, but I did uh I didget together with uh KC1 OHT
Shannon.
Uh we went and activated uhRobert Frost's homestead in
Derry uh on Thursday.
We did that in the rain.
Um I had just enough of a pausein the rain uh to throw the

(18:48):
Reliance Infed up into a tree.
Um the uh the funny thing isthough, right, is so if you're
familiar with the the parkinglot at Rubber Frost, uh I was
all the way down the end.
So it was like right as close tothe trail beginning as I could
be.
And I figured for sure anybodyshowing up wasn't gonna be

(19:09):
walking through the trail.
So it wouldn't be a big dealthat the coax was going out my
back window of my truck and thenyou know, like up into the tree
that way.
But no, sure enough, uh therewas a couple of young gentlemen.
Uh they they parked next to us,and uh so I'm I'm I'm super

(19:31):
paranoid about my surroundings,right?
I'm always you know kind of livewatching.
Uh and and so I I noticed thatthis guy was kind of hovering on
the driver's side kind of backportion of my truck.
And so Shannon's uh sitting, youknow, in the passenger seat,
she's calling CQ.
So I rolled the window down andand I looked over and I was

(19:52):
like, are you all right?
Like, can I help you?
And he goes, I'm sorry, I didn'tmean to bother you.
He's like, I'm just curious,like, what are you doing?
And and I was like, Oh, uh,well, I'm like, this is amateur
radio.
And uh, I was like, we actuallywe just finished talking to a
guy in France, and he's like, Noway, you just talked to somebody

(20:16):
in France, like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (20:21):
Just an average day for us.

SPEAKER_02 (20:25):
I dude, 10 and 15.
Uh, it was it was unreal.
Uh so uh Keith, AC1RH, uh, hewas activating at Rock Riman in
Manchester.
Um, and so from Manchester toDerry is you know what, maybe 30
miles as the crow flies.

SPEAKER_04 (20:44):
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (20:44):
Um but beautiful.
Like, I mean, we must have hadlike the the pipeline to one
another.
It was like like he was sittingin the in the next seat.
Um, so it was good to good toget him uh, you know, park to
park.
Um yeah, but it was it was justso much uh France, Belgium,

(21:05):
Spain, uh a lot of Germanystations, um, you know, just
kind of like that that wholearea.
There was just a big funnel uhon 10 and 15.
So yeah, it was absolutelygreat.
Um I think we had uh 37 contactsin the log for for each of us,
and it was a good time.
Even got uh even got Ryan, uh W1SNH.

(21:27):
Um the interesting thing isright, he he was remoting into
his station in Milford uh fromOhio.
And so like you could you couldalmost like kind of hear like uh
uh you know the slight delay inthe the connection of the PTV
going and and uh but yeah thatwas that was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 (21:50):
Sweet.
Yeah, it's always good to getRyan.
He always surprises you too.
You never just like expect it,and like it's almost a sudden
you're like, I can't be himbecause you hear his call sign,
you're like, nah, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 (22:00):
Well, I I've been when I'm at the rail trail, I
I've gotten them like the lasttwo or three two times I've
gotten them from home.
Right, which is like he's prettyclose.

SPEAKER_00 (22:12):
But you you I mean you got him what on 15 or 10?

SPEAKER_02 (22:16):
Me?
Um no, no, Paul.
I think we were on 15 at thatpoint, yeah.
Wow.

SPEAKER_00 (22:21):
We're gonna do more on 15, man.
I don't do enough on 15.
Like my band that I just don'tremember that it's there.

SPEAKER_04 (22:30):
It's a redheaded stepchild.
Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 (22:35):
It's sort of like how I used to treat 10, and then
now I warmed up to 10, and now Iremember like, oh, I have 10
meters, I can go to that, andthen I go to, you know, uh but
20, like 20's just been good forme, like obviously uh recently
with the you know rail trail anduh 20 was great for me.
And oh, we'll talk about theother stuff I did, but I didn't
get to work here, which I wasbummed at because I saw you pop
up on the spotting page, but Ididn't, you know, for whatever

(22:56):
reason I couldn't find youagain.

SPEAKER_02 (22:59):
Oh bummer.
Yeah, um so here's the here's aninteresting thing, right?
My my favorite frequency is28.420.

SPEAKER_00 (23:08):
I thought it was 7.200.

SPEAKER_02 (23:11):
Well, uh that's that's that's when I've got a
little alcohol in me.
Um but uh when I when I was on15, I I was trying to look and
and figure out a good frequencyto call out on.
And wouldn't you know that21.420 is in the band.

SPEAKER_00 (23:30):
One on Wednesday?
Or you're Thursday.
You went on Thursday.
Thursday.
Yeah, so close.

SPEAKER_02 (23:37):
Yeah.
So I f I found I found a newfavorite frequency on on 15.

SPEAKER_00 (23:42):
Nice.
Nice.
So overall of the contactsmostly 15 and 10 or just on 15?

SPEAKER_02 (23:48):
Uh we had uh 11 on 10 and the rest were on 15.

SPEAKER_00 (23:53):
Wow, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 (23:55):
Yeah.
Yeah, and the France stationactually hunted on both bands.

SPEAKER_00 (23:59):
Oh, so you got a double for them.
Nice.

SPEAKER_02 (24:02):
Yeah.
And he sent me the electronicUSL card right away too, which
is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
You you get uh um what's the word I was looking
for?
Uh use G91 or you use uh uh G90.

SPEAKER_02 (24:16):
Yeah, no.
Um so shannon uh offered the theG90 and she also had uh whatever
that big fucking stupid Yesuradio is that I don't like.
There you go.
Whatever the the the the one wehad at the POTA or whatever.
Yeah, okay.

(24:37):
Yeah.
So I I I was not using thatfucking radio.
So no, uh we we went with the891.

SPEAKER_00 (24:43):
Um never touched the EX10.

SPEAKER_02 (24:45):
I set the uh I set the radio uh just on the middle
of the dash.
Um although like now, all right,you know how I am about being
prepared for like anything,right?
And so she's got this batterythat I should you not.
It's it's like whatever thebiggest freaking battery size is

(25:07):
for a hundred amp hour battery.
I mean, this thing is huge.
Yeah, and I was like, uh listen,I got a I got a 12 amp hour
battery that's nice and small,and it's you know it's great.
And it I I can I can do afive-hour activation on that
battery, no problem.
Well, I didn't think about it,right?
Uh I did the the Iowa activationwhen I was out in Iowa.

SPEAKER_00 (25:30):
Oh, you never recharged it?

SPEAKER_02 (25:31):
And I and I used that battery, and then I did
Montesano and I used thatbattery, and I just I threw it
back in my bag.
I never charged it.

SPEAKER_01 (25:39):
Oh, did the great Grouch actually not come
prepared for this one time andmade it look like a pie on his
face?

SPEAKER_02 (25:45):
Oh no.
I was still I was still preparedbecause I had the 20 uh in the
in the bed of the truck.
But oh yeah, mid mid-frickingcalling CQ all of a sudden.
And I'm like, oh hold on, let megrab the other battery real
quick.

SPEAKER_00 (26:04):
Yeah, do you still had a hundred amp hour sitting
probably in the back seat?
Or whatever how big that thingwas.

SPEAKER_02 (26:09):
Yeah, no, I didn't I didn't bring the 100 amp hour.

SPEAKER_00 (26:12):
I I no no, she her, I thought her battery was.
Oh, hers.

SPEAKER_02 (26:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hers, yeah.
Well, I I wasn't gonna ask herto pull that thing out of the
Subaru, like Jesus.
I don't even know where we wouldhave put that freaking battery
in the truck.
Like she would have had to likeput it at her feet or something.

SPEAKER_00 (26:32):
That's the only way.
I mean, there's no room.
Like you can't put that on thedash.
So God forbid Watson touch it.
Uh cool.
Well, dude, that sounds like uh,yeah, and uh it I'm almost like
surprised.
I don't know, maybe you guyshaven't picked up on this, but
like it seems like Septemberseems to be getting better and
better with the bands.
And like I'm afraid that likewhat we hit the end of October

(26:54):
and it's all gonna go in thetank.

SPEAKER_02 (26:56):
Well, no, but what it is is now now that we're
coming into fall, we're notgetting as much of the D-layer
absorption.
Yeah, and so we're getting we'regetting the you know, 10, 12,
15, 17.
That's that's you know, we'regetting really good uh
propagation on those bands.
Uh according to Tamitha Scove,though, like the I mean the sun
is still she's an angry bitch.

(27:17):
Uh and yeah, we got a wholebunch of cornal holes that are
gonna come turning facing us uhabout midweek.
So yeah, be on the lookout.

SPEAKER_00 (27:26):
Which is really freaking awesome because guess
what I have to do this week?
I have to do two antenna reviewsthis week, and you know what?
It's gonna suck.

SPEAKER_02 (27:34):
Well, I'm going to my favorite park on Tuesday.
Um Shannon.
Shannon uh wanted to come along.
Uh she wants to see the park.
So um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (27:46):
She just wants to know where your secret spot is.
That's as simple as that, youknow.

SPEAKER_02 (27:50):
Yeah, probably.
Everybody wants to know wherethat secret spot is.
Um it's a good secret Yeah,W8CJL.
He he knows because uh he hegrew up uh at Pratt on.

SPEAKER_00 (28:01):
So yeah, so he definitely knows.
Yeah, well, hey, hey, good foryou, and definitely uh, you
know, pending on my schedule,it's either Tuesday or today.
I can't remember when I'm gonnabe doing that Nintendo review,
but I gotta get that done.
And uh yeah, this week isshaping up.
So it's only like literally likea four-day work week for me
because Friday we're gonna haveNear Fest, and at that point,

(28:22):
you know, uh uh that's a wholededicated thing.
So, you know, I gotta getprepared for all that.
Uh yeah.
All right, well, cool.
Well, it sounds like you haddefinitely had your potafil.
So how about you, Todd?
What's what's your uh pot oflike our ham radio week look
like?

SPEAKER_03 (28:38):
I um I just got my hotspot, so I should be able to
use uh use uh All-Star.
All-star in my truck in my Jeep.

SPEAKER_00 (28:49):
It's hard to say, it's like a seat of metaphyd.

SPEAKER_03 (28:51):
Yeah.
All-star in my truck.
So we've tested it before thebefore the recording tonight,
and it should work, so I'll findout tomorrow morning when I uh
go to work.
I'll probably be on the the livefree and ham uh node.
See if anyone's out there.

SPEAKER_00 (29:08):
I'll be in the office, so I'll definitely be.

SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
Now I gotta now I gotta get the the the music
clip.
Hey now, you're an all-star.
Which game up, go play.

SPEAKER_00 (29:18):
There we go.
Yeah, definitely, man.
Gonna be our mantra for a while.
Well, it's kind of good becauselike I like all-star starting to
pick up a minute.
Mike was, you know, he's hadFreddie has made his rounds.
Like, I might my gosh, he'sliterally on the circuit now.
It's like he's got a book tourgoing on.
Um, or it's all-star pie tour,but whatever.
Um, you know, he's uh he'sdefinitely making the round.

(29:39):
So I think uh I'm pretty psychedthat Mike's starting to kind of
play around with that.
You know, Todd's finally got allstar.
Paul, you've you know got allstar, and so maybe we can just
get more people going.
It'd be kind of fun.

SPEAKER_03 (29:50):
Hell yeah.
Well, you know, it's uh we needto get our club uh repeater on
all star.

SPEAKER_00 (29:58):
Oh, yes, that is another move that.

SPEAKER_03 (30:00):
If only well that's happening.
We got$9,000 sitting in thebank.
It's freaking happening.

SPEAKER_00 (30:07):
You don't even have to spend a lot of money.
My gosh.
Literally, I our lit okay.
So I'll let the cat out of thebag.
For those that are listeners,and you're obviously, you know,
our general listenership willhear this now.
We're we finished, I finishedbuilding our Lift Free and Ham
All-Star Hub.
So you can head over to 580871.
That's our Lift Free and Hamhub.
Connect to it.
Say hello.

(30:28):
You know, this is going to belike, you know, we're testing it
out.
So just you know, be wary.
It might go down, it mightchange as we kind of adjust to
it.
But um, you know, we're gonnathrow it out there.
You know, guess what?
You you can now connect, hangout with us.
Uh, we'll I always monitor it.
Uh, it's my primary uh, youknow, uh hub to connect to.
And I know once Paul finallygets his second node in the
trailer set up and Todd finallygets on the road and start

(30:49):
placing with heads, we'll we'llbe up there.
So yeah, say hello.
You know, we want to use it as away to stay connected.
Yep.
Yeah, we might actually put agood morning, Vietnam.

SPEAKER_03 (31:00):
I'll be like every time I get in the car.

SPEAKER_00 (31:02):
Good morning, live free.
Actually, I think we can play amessage file, so we might
actually be able to do that.
I have to go in and starttweaking some of the every time
I turn it on.

SPEAKER_03 (31:12):
Good morning.

SPEAKER_02 (31:15):
Yeah, well, you you should talk to um KO4 JJU um
because he set it up for the uhflag and torch society.
And I it it he's got like 30different music or uh
audiophiles that play.
Um I think it's like uh at the15 and a half hours marks.

(31:37):
Um but they're all they're alldifferent, you know, and so
it'll be like oh you're youknow, you're listening to you
know flag and torch societywhere you know our coffee is
cold and our our attitudes arebitter.
Yeah, you know what I mean?
Like something it's it's cheeky,cheeky things.

SPEAKER_00 (31:54):
Like yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 (31:55):
Are you allowed to do that on the it's an ID?
Yeah.
You can have I thought you'renot allowed to have recordings.

SPEAKER_00 (32:05):
That's what the CW ID is on repeaters, or some
repeaters have like uh you'vereached a W4 SAS, you know.

SPEAKER_03 (32:12):
So you can have good morning, live free in hand every
morning.
Yeah, good.
Every time someone logs into it,they get it.

SPEAKER_00 (32:23):
So yeah, it's coming.

SPEAKER_02 (32:25):
Oh wow.
Every every morning at 0500.

SPEAKER_00 (32:30):
Oh god.

SPEAKER_03 (32:32):
And every hour and then every time, every time the
grouch connects, we'll just playSesame Street.

SPEAKER_01 (32:39):
Can you tell me how to get?

SPEAKER_03 (32:44):
Oh boy.
This could turn into something.
It could be a popular note.
People would just get out what'scoming up next.

SPEAKER_00 (32:50):
They'll just connect in every time so they can hear
the message of the day and justdisconnect.
So it'd be like a lot ofkerchunking the whole entire
time.

SPEAKER_01 (32:56):
It'd be just like a regular repeater.

SPEAKER_00 (32:58):
Woo-hoo.
Sweet, that's awesome.
Please don't.

SPEAKER_03 (33:03):
Not that it kills you know radio cycles.
So anyway, that's my ham radiostuff.
So let's ask uh Eric, uh, what'dyou do this week?

SPEAKER_00 (33:12):
Well, I um did a part of the wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_03 (33:16):
You clearly missed the near live cat file.

SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
I did, but I had a legit reason.
So, like if for those that aremy followers uh of uh N1JUR know
that I used to do uh on everySunday live uh brew and
activate.
Well, because of my schedule andfamily and personal changes uh
with work and whatnot, I had tomove that, you know, to another
date, which the good news is ifyou got the message on my

(33:39):
channel, you'll know that uh,you know, we're moving that to
Friday.
And so our first kickoff is onFriday.
All that leading up to is that Ialso had a customer issue that I
had to deal with Saturday nighttoo as well.
And then, you know, shortlyafter when we ended at eight, I
had date night with the wifeanyway.
So it was like, okay, I got thecustomer stuff done just as you

(34:00):
guys were wrapping up, but I wasjust like, I'm not even gonna be
able to join at this point.
So the Todd's already jumpingoff, so I was like, all right,
fine, whatever.
So yeah, I missed it.

SPEAKER_01 (34:08):
But you know, dude, it was in good hands.

SPEAKER_00 (34:10):
You know, Paul stepped up, you know, he did the
MC and no problem.
He threw Shannon under the busthe first five seconds, but you
know, hey, yeah, try it by fire,it all works fine by me.

SPEAKER_01 (34:20):
We should go back.
We'll get him next time.

SPEAKER_00 (34:22):
I'm gonna get back on Mike on that stupid Hertz
rental comment, but you know,that's just for another day.

SPEAKER_03 (34:30):
Shannon takes a lot of abuse.

SPEAKER_00 (34:32):
Oh, you guys dole out a lot of.
I went back on team replay andwatched that, and I was like,
oh, poor Shannon.
Welcome to you know, trial byfire.
But that's she takes it, youknow.
She she can probably dole it outtoo, but she's you know, more
than a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 (34:44):
Well, just even in the chat, did you read some of
the chat stuff going on?
That's where she takes the abusein the chat.

SPEAKER_00 (34:51):
Oh no.
Poor girl.
She's a trooper.
And so, yeah.
I uh so we're moving brew andactivate.
So brew and activate will beFriday.

SPEAKER_03 (34:59):
So is she your co-host now on Brew and
Activate?

SPEAKER_00 (35:02):
She is, I I won't call her my Frank, but she comes
in from time to time to helpout.
She does a freaking phenomenalbang up job with getting, you
know, the chat moving and peopleconversing.
Because as Paul knows, it'stough.
You have to manage the chat, youhave to manage a conversation,
you have to pretend you'reparticipating at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 (35:20):
And it's so much easier to have a second person
just doing background things.

SPEAKER_00 (35:26):
Exactly.
And she does a phenomenal job atit.
So, you know, even though like Italk a lot, which you guys are
very, you know, accustomed to ingeneral.
So, you know, obviously it wasmissed on Saturday.
So I took your place there.
I know you did an awesome job,my friend.
There's no need to apologize.
Uh, you know, I appreciate allof the T-Mobile stories and the
fact that you're now uh anofficial uh you know uh

(35:47):
spokesperson of T-Mobile.

SPEAKER_03 (35:49):
Listen, 22 years of Verizon, they can kiss my ass.

SPEAKER_00 (35:53):
Well what's the the Verizon commercial?
Can I hear you now?
No, shut up, you're shut up,bitch.
Yeah.
So in all that being said, yes,so Bruin Activate Shannon's
gonna you know be in and out asshe you know as part of it.
But uh to get back to what I wasdoing was is that um Paul
obviously did um Robert Frost,and I ended up having uh a job

(36:16):
that I had to do down inStoneham, and there was a park
that I had somehow missedsomewhere in Andover.
I don't know how I missed it orwhere I missed it or you know,
whatever.
And it's not like a five-digit,you know, new park, it's been
around for a while.
And so I got out of my job earlyand I was like, oh, I'm just
gonna instead of go to lunch,I'll go activate the park
because it's literally like 20minutes away from where I was in
Stoneham.

(36:37):
And so I went over to HaroldParker State Forest, and dude,
that is a freaking like denseforest, and like it's big.
And so I went over to a place inHarold Forest uh or in Harold
Parker State Forest, you know,spread called Chris Pond or
whatever it was.
And I was there in the parkinglot and I was the only one
there, and I didn't bring myNintendo, but I had my ATAS and
my 891.
And so I fired up on 20 meters,and of course, and here you go,

(37:00):
Todd, this just confirms yourbelief that you know uh the
power of YouTube.
I um I was literally on the youknow, making contacts in
general, spinning the bands, youknow, and I finally started to
activate.
When I started to finallyactivate, I got one or two
contacts from folks because Iwas also live streaming.
And of course, in in theinfinite wisdom of live
streaming, I am never gonna livestream from my camera again

(37:23):
because this thing fucking suckswhen it comes to live streaming,
when you have to like, you know,because you can't do horizontal
in YouTube format, it's allportrait.
And so like I'm trying to doportrait, trying to run the
radio, trying to do all thisstuff.
And of course, none of my mountshold the phone.
Long story short, I'm startingto do my activation, and of
course, the one guy I do apark-to-park with, you know, or
he comes back to me withpark-to-park, he's like, oh,

(37:45):
hey, a YouTuber.
Wow, hey, you know, and thatjust set everything off.
Like, literally, after thatpoint, it was like, I'm with
royalty.
And I'm like, and I'm like,yeah, thanks.
I appreciate it, blah, blah,blah.
And I can't remember the guy'scalled to go back in the logs
and look.
But you know, after that, it wasjust like non-stop, non-stop,
non-stop, non-stop.

SPEAKER_03 (38:01):
And it was like famous Eric.

SPEAKER_00 (38:03):
Yeah, I was just like, I'm just a guy.
That's all I am.
I'm a boy.
Oh, yeah.
It's been going on for a longtime, folks.
Yeah, I'm now realizing yourpain there.
Sorry, Todd.

SPEAKER_02 (38:12):
And like a lot of us are really smart.
I'm really smart.
You're the most amazing guy.

SPEAKER_00 (38:16):
No, no.
I just a man with a microphone.
So yeah, uh, we did.
I mostly did on 20.
I really I should have, youknow, I should have paid
attention more and you know,sought out of 15 because I can
definitely do 15 on the ATAS and10 for sure.
But I was there for probablyabout 45 minutes and live stream
for about the same.
And it was fun because we had uhRabbit Ham and a few others that

(38:40):
were working, um, you know, uhworking me, you know, literally,
it was kind of funny becauselike before I even spotted
myself, I had put in the disc inthe chat or I said in the video,
I'm like, I'm on 14283 orsomething like that.
I can't remember what thefrequency was.
And not even before I startedcalling CQ, uh, Rabbit Ham's
like, hey, N1 J U R.
I'd like to make I'm like, dude,I haven't even spotted like

(39:00):
myself physically, and I'malready making a contact with
you.
And it's like, okay, fine,whatever.
We'll just roll right into it,throw me off guard.
So yeah, it was it was fun.
It was a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 (39:08):
He's gonna he's gonna need to have a he's gonna
have to, he's so popular now, heneeds a like a an assistant to
handle spotting, logging,because you know screw the
assistant, we're just gonna doAI, like we talked about before.
Click the click the key the mic.
Oh man.
Yeah.
So uh number one I've learned.

(39:29):
All right, the king is is iscoming to do PODA.

SPEAKER_00 (39:32):
Sorry, Todd.
My I can't talk to you.
My entourage will talk with you.

SPEAKER_02 (39:36):
Don't worry.
Talk to the PR person, please.

SPEAKER_00 (39:40):
Exactly right.
Schedule a time, they'll look atmy calendar and find a spot
where we can have aconversation.
Yeah, catch you later.
Um, yeah, no, sorry, hopefullyit never runs that way.
Um, so yeah, uh all in all, Iyou know, I will never leave
home without my streaming gear,or if I'm especially gonna think
about doing a park, because thatwas like the dark ages for

(40:00):
trying to like do a live stream.
I was like, oh, this is sopainful.
I couldn't participate in thechat.
You know, it was just I was likein my head, it was like, oh,
this should be easy, no problem.
Everyone does their videos fromtheir phones.
This should be no problem.
Yeah.
I my battery on the phone waslike a 20%.
My uh laptop that I forgot tobring my POTA laptop, I used my

(40:21):
work laptop, and that was at20%.
So I'm like trying to find waysto plug in and like oh, this is
just a mess, but it worked outgood.

SPEAKER_03 (40:27):
How many contacts you make?

SPEAKER_00 (40:29):
30 37 in about 40 minutes, so not too bad.
Yeah, you bottom or Europe.

SPEAKER_03 (40:33):
You would have had like 150 if you weren't so
famous.

SPEAKER_00 (40:36):
Uh maybe.
Uh the rail trail is a perfectexample of that one, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (40:44):
I'm afraid to go out do any pods with you two
anymore.
I'll never with the between thegrouch and you it'll be like and
oh, we got a third operator.
Uh, who's that guy?
Whiskey one what?
Who?
Yeah, well, don't worry aboutit.
Yeah, we don't need him, wedon't need him.
We just want to talk to youguys.
Yeah, yeah.
Send us a QS card QSL card withyour signature on it, please.

SPEAKER_00 (41:07):
Dude, bottom line is that all I have to say is get
your channel going beforeShannon does because she's gonna
take over.
She's already started.
I know.

SPEAKER_03 (41:14):
She's already started it.
She doesn't work.
She's always doing POTA.

SPEAKER_00 (41:20):
Oh, dude, that's a slap for stay-at-home mom.
She doesn't work.
Go ahead.
I say that.
Say that aloud.
Let me requote this for her.

SPEAKER_03 (41:26):
She's like, my kid goes to school and I go POTA.
Dude, well, I'd like to.
If I might, if I was at home,I'd kid goes to school, you got
like six hours.

SPEAKER_00 (41:35):
Let me come over and we'll hang out in your living
room, and then I want you to saythat to your wife and see what
happens.
See if you get decked.
You better videotape that shit.
Don't worry, dude.
I'm gonna be on camera.
We're gonna be wired up.

SPEAKER_03 (41:46):
She she's she's working hard.
She's gonna at home.
I know.

SPEAKER_00 (41:52):
Oh, and she worked at her, but you know, tell her
that she's a stay-at-home momand like, God, you just just
shot yourself in the head.

SPEAKER_03 (41:58):
No, she said my kid goes to school and I do podas
all day.
What's wrong with that, dude?
That's good to balance.
What time do I have to do aYouTube channel?
I'm out the door by seven, and Iget home at like four or five

(42:19):
o'clock, and I'm exhausted.

SPEAKER_02 (42:22):
And then it's like helping Paul.
It's it's all in what you makeit.
It's all in what you make it.
Like, if you truly want to gofucking play PODA, right?
And you have to prioritize itand you have to make it.
You have to make it.
Like, sometimes you're gonna betired, you're not gonna feel
good, you're you're not gonnawant to sit down and edit the

(42:42):
freaking video afterwards.
Like, dude, Shannon doesn't edither videos.
Like, look at her channel.
Like, yeah, straight up.
Like you have to edit them,don't you?
Like, there's no rule.
Yeah, but look at look at mylook at my channel.
My my first videos was it wasyou know, repeats of the

(43:04):
freaking live free and hampodcasts, and it was just me
going out doing random freakingparks.
Like all right.
Everybody starts somewhere.
You just gotta decide to do it.
Dude, so quit your 80-meterbitchin'.

SPEAKER_00 (43:21):
In a YouTuber's life, is that they start like
small and then they get like,oh, this production stuff is
really cool, and they got allwrapped up in it, and they say,
Screw this, I'm going back tothe basics, and they start
recording for their phone forthe next four or five years, and
then their channel just goesright off the roof.

SPEAKER_03 (43:34):
So yeah, like that's maybe I don't want to be a
YouTuber.

SPEAKER_00 (43:37):
You don't have to be.
All right, but just fucking getlike 50 people on your channel
as subscribers so you can streamto your YouTube so we can boost
Liv Free and him more.

SPEAKER_02 (43:47):
And and and if you don't want to do what we're
doing, then don't bitch aboutus, you know, getting some
notoriety from it.

SPEAKER_00 (43:55):
I know.
Come on, be our friend.

SPEAKER_01 (43:58):
Be one of us.

SPEAKER_00 (44:00):
You you get to live famously through us, basically.

SPEAKER_03 (44:04):
I love it.
Because you're talking about.
I'm hanging with with N1J U Rpeople.
You are what's the guy?

SPEAKER_00 (44:11):
I have the connections.
Ah man, I can't remember the thecharacter in um Deadpool.
His the the older guy, like uhshoot.
He was in Deadpool two or three.
He's the guy uh shoot.
Ah, forget his name.
Uh dead.

unknown (44:29):
All right.

SPEAKER_02 (44:30):
Yeah, I didn't I didn't see the second and third
one.

SPEAKER_03 (44:32):
Uh you know, you know, you know who what POTA guy
I envy is Keith.
He's got over 70,000 POTAcontacts because he worked uh he
was in the military and then hedid like special, I don't know,
off like military crapprivately.
You're talking uh AC1RH.
Yeah, and he's like, I mean hewas telling me he's like retired

(44:53):
or something.
So he is like when I asked him,I said, hey, how many uh POTA at
the 24?
He's like, I think I'm aroundlike 70,000.
I'm like 70,000 contacts?
Like he's living the po he isliving the POTA dream.
Like he's gonna catch up tothose guys that are like the top
three that if he keeps going theway he's going.

(45:14):
Oh maybe that's uh maybe that'ssomething he's trying for.
I mean, how I wonder how I meanhe's got 70,000, I don't know
how many, he's probably I don'teven know if he's done it.
Has he been doing it for a year,a little over a year?

SPEAKER_00 (45:28):
Been doing it for quite a while.
Yeah, I mean have to look at hisstats, but he's got a lot.

SPEAKER_03 (45:33):
I want to go out with my kayak with him.
We're gonna go and do thatisland.
Remember, he was the first onehe got like that award or that
recognition for doing thatisland near, I think it was near
Rockport or something.
Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 (45:47):
84,059 Cusos.

SPEAKER_00 (45:50):
Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 (45:52):
That's what I mean.
70 77 parks activated, 590activations.

SPEAKER_03 (46:00):
Yeah, good for you, Keith.
It's a machine.
He came to talk to me aboutparks on the air at a meeting,
at a club meeting, andrecognized my voice.
And so I was like, Yeah, youshould come out with us.
It's a lot of fun.
And all of a sudden he's likethe king.
It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 (46:19):
I want to know where his mark, like where the marker
is when he started to introducethe 600-watt amp.
Like where did it like you knowhe brought that up?
No, he brought it.
We didn't use it.
I felt bad.

SPEAKER_03 (46:29):
I'm like, what the hell is that thing?
He's got this huge box thatgoes, this is the amp.
I was like, damn.

SPEAKER_00 (46:35):
We could have definitely used it.

SPEAKER_03 (46:37):
I don't think he's bringing that amp though on a on
the kayak trips, getting thoseislands.

SPEAKER_00 (46:41):
Not that one, but I'm sure he's brought it to
other places.

SPEAKER_03 (46:44):
It's awesome though.
I mean, it's just it I'm I'mjealous and envious of him
because that's just really coolthat he's able to do that.
And why am I?
Who's got the mo what what's therecord for contacts?
Like, what is that guy that hasthe most contacts?

SPEAKER_00 (47:02):
How many does he have uh you'd have to look it on
the stats?
I have to go back and look atit.

SPEAKER_03 (47:10):
He's gotta be in the top 100.

SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
Um well all-time top activators.
Uh I hope that they sorted themcorrectly.
No, they totally didn't.
Um okay, uh Kilo 7 uh CharlieAlfa Romeo is number one with

(47:34):
533,240.

SPEAKER_03 (47:41):
He's almost a fifth of the way there.

SPEAKER_02 (47:44):
Um yeah, number two is four hundred and eighty
thousand six hundred andfifteen.
Number three wife four hundredthousand five hundred and
sixty-five.

SPEAKER_03 (47:55):
So he's getting there.
I'm telling you, he hasn't beendoing it for more than a little
over a year, maybe.
And he's got eighty thousandeighty-four thousand.
A couple years he'll be right upthere with him.
And they've been doing thissince those guys have started in

(48:16):
like what did it start in 87?
Yeah.
He's in the top fifty.
He's in the top fifty.
Yeah, he's getting there.

SPEAKER_00 (48:27):
This guy.
Oh man, it's gonna piss me off.
This is in the the Deadpool andWolverine movie.
Why is his name gonna escape me?
Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 (48:34):
Yeah, he's uh 45th, if my math is right.
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (48:39):
Good job, Keith.
That's impressive.
It's gonna be an honor doing aporo activation with that guy.

SPEAKER_00 (48:45):
If you can, you mean he's such like constantly well,
he's doing one.
You can never get out ofschedule.

SPEAKER_03 (48:54):
Try to catch up to you.

SPEAKER_01 (48:56):
He's like, can I just follow you?

SPEAKER_02 (48:59):
Maybe maybe maybe I should reach out to him and see
if he wants to go to RussellAbbott with me.

SPEAKER_03 (49:04):
I'm sure he'd go with you.
You know, he'll go.
Oh, dude, he would totally.
He probably liked that.
I thought I remember he was theguy, he was the one who was
gonna come with us when you andI did Russell Abbott.
And then he he reached out andhe says, Oh, he goes, I gotta he
was doing another park, or maybeI can reach you.
And then I called him and Isaid, uh, we already left.

(49:25):
And he goes, No problem.
But he was gonna be there thatday that I brought Zach up to go
fishing.
He was gonna try to meet with usthat day.
So I don't know if he'sactivated that park or not, but
I'm sure he'd like to.
Well, I'll tell you, I mean, itwas nice.

SPEAKER_02 (49:38):
Uh, there wasn't a whole lot of people during the
24-hour POTA that came in andhung out with me in the mobile
command, but Keith did.
He he came in and he hung outfor a good while.
It was nice.

SPEAKER_00 (49:51):
Yeah, I didn't get a chance to see much of him
because I think when I wasrunning around with my head cut
off trying to get all the foodon Saturday, I was like, Hey
Keith, and I said hello to himand he left he left and then he
came home back to get his dog,and then he had some other
issue.

SPEAKER_03 (50:02):
He had to leave again.
So he had said that he was hesays, Oh man, I'm sorry, I gotta
go.
I don't know if I'll be, I'll beI'll try to come back in the
morning, but it sounded like hejust had shit going on.

SPEAKER_02 (50:12):
You you know what it was?
The the next day was hisbirthday.
Oh, and his brother came up fromFlorida.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 (50:21):
Oh, so surprised him and he was at home.
Oopsie.
Oh, I'm camping with my my campradio freaks.

SPEAKER_02 (50:31):
Yeah, I told him I was like, hey, bring bring your
brother, you know, come back,come back.
Uh, you know.

SPEAKER_03 (50:36):
Oh, that's awesome.
No, he's a good guy.
He uh yeah, I hope to find sometime to do some parts with him.
I think it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 (50:44):
Well, I mean, we we did it, we we did the head to
head to head vertical thatfailed miserably, but uh, you
know, that was still fun to hangout.
I mean, about that one becausehe was like, I've never used
this antenna before.
I'm like, I know, I barely usedit myself, but gotta figure out
when we're gonna do that again.

SPEAKER_02 (51:00):
Yeah, and I I don't remember which of the the two
antennas that that specific onewas, but that antenna, just
throw in the trash.
Oh, there's a reason.
Whoever makes that antenna, justthrow in the trash.

SPEAKER_00 (51:11):
Yeah.
I I don't know how much it wasthe antenna.
I think it would definitely waspartially my lack of you know,
fooling around with enoughbecause last time I played with
it was like four months before,and I held on to it for like way
too long for a review that helet me borrow it for.
And I said finally, I was like,and then that's when we did it
in the snow.
And that was like the most worsttime we should have done it
because all of that snowtreading back and forth, and I

(51:33):
was like, oh, this is not theone the place to be doing it.
So now would be perfect time,but yeah, whatever.
We'll we'll we'll figure it out.
I'll have to get him anotheremail.
All right, well, what are wetalking about tonight?

SPEAKER_03 (51:49):
Uh Near Fest, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (51:51):
Among everything and anything, you know, we're gonna
talk about Near Fest tonight.
I know this is kind of like ayou know, uh, after the fact, by
the time most of our regularlisteners are gonna hear this,
and so we apologize.
But in essence, you know,hopefully you know if you are a
Patreon listener, you're gonnaget this firsthand, you know.
So we're doing a bunch of stuff.
If you haven't paid attention tomy channel, Grouch's channel,

(52:11):
even Liverfree and Ham, we'regoing to be doing Near Fest on
Friday.
It's it's kind of like ourthing.
We do it like twice a year.
Uh, it's been, you know, so far,the second time we've done this
live stream and and uh beenhanging out with folks, but it's
it's kind of a cool little hamfest.
This will be the second time, orwe the second live stream that
we've done from Nearfest forLivering Ham.
We'll be this we'll be this one.

(52:33):
Okay.
Yeah, because we the first onewe did was in the spring.

SPEAKER_03 (52:36):
Yeah.
Yep.
That's part of Near Fest, it'sjust I like just hanging out
with everyone.

SPEAKER_02 (52:41):
Did did we not do something in the fall last year?
I mean, I didn't have the Ididn't have the camper then, but
I thought we I thought we didn'tsee it.

SPEAKER_03 (52:49):
No, we were going to get together, but something
happened.
Yeah, we did not.
I didn't go last fall.
I went.

SPEAKER_00 (52:59):
Yeah, both you and Paul, uh both Paul and I no,
actually, no.
So the spring one, we gotta goback here, man.
If we go to the spring one, thespring one was the live stream
that we did.
Let me go back to that day.
That was a fun one.
That was bad.

SPEAKER_02 (53:16):
Well yeah, it was rained.
So that was April.

SPEAKER_00 (53:20):
Yep.
So then that would be April2025.
So we didn't do anything uh lastfall.
Yeah, we didn't we were thinkingabout recording.
We all met though.
I remember being there.

SPEAKER_02 (53:31):
Yeah, because I I did a video.
Was I there?

SPEAKER_00 (53:35):
Yeah, yeah, you're probably there.
Yeah, because I have a video forit too.

SPEAKER_02 (53:40):
Because I I just I just I distinctly remember I I I
parked my truck uh in in the thethe yard of that house.

SPEAKER_00 (53:48):
Yeah, right, yeah, right, yes in the front, right.
I remember that.
Okay.
Yeah, so that was before thatwas pre-TORtoise, before you
know we bumped into him and allthat stuff.
So yeah, yeah, we were there.
All blended.

SPEAKER_03 (54:01):
Was that one in was that one in New Boston or was
that the old one?

SPEAKER_00 (54:05):
No, that was New Boston.

SPEAKER_03 (54:06):
It was.

SPEAKER_00 (54:07):
Yep.
That was their second year, orsecond time being in New Boston.
Yeah, because they started thatthe 2024 they started in New
Boston in the spring.

SPEAKER_03 (54:14):
Yeah, because I remember the last time it was in
Green, was it what was it, GreenDeerfield?
Deerfield.
The last time remember we went,we were walking around and we
were talking about we shouldlive we should do a live stream
or whatever, and then itswitched.

unknown (54:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (54:28):
Right.
Then it didn't come back there.

SPEAKER_00 (54:31):
Right.
Well, they had at that pointthey were getting kicked out of
Deerfield and told that theyneeded to go somewhere else, and
they were already there wasalready talks about how it was
to be, you know, why did theyget kicked out?
Agriculture Fair wanted you knowmore agricultural like events.

SPEAKER_03 (54:47):
Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_02 (54:50):
I guarantee you if if there had been a 4-H
component to Nearfest that waslike publicized, then 100% would
have been AOK.
Yeah, because the Deerfield Fairis all about agriculture.

SPEAKER_03 (55:07):
Right, but don't they want to make money?
Don't they make money onNearfest?

SPEAKER_02 (55:11):
That place is booked every freaking week through the
whole year.
Really?
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (55:18):
And Nearfest in general is not a huge, like
they're a small little drop inthe pond in comparison to all
their other events that theyhave there.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (55:25):
Although Nearfest is bigger than Huntsville.
Is it size-wise of the vendorsand and the the flea market
section?
Oh fuck yes, it is.
Wow.
Really?
Yeah, we just we just don't wedon't get the big names.
Like we don't, we don't haveiCom, Yesu, Flex, like they come
up here.

SPEAKER_00 (55:45):
Just to be honest, at this point, I'm tired of like
they aren't bringing anythingnew to the event.
So like whether they are or not,big deal.

SPEAKER_02 (55:51):
Exactly.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (55:53):
Make more room for reliance.
How big is these five tablesthis year?

SPEAKER_02 (55:56):
Marlboro.
I've never been to Marlboro.

SPEAKER_00 (56:01):
We went to Marlboro.
Marlboro is one room, one roomfor all of the events, and then
a bunch of like their claim tofame and their where they hang
the hat on Marlboro is all abouttheir forums.
They love their forums.
They promote them like they'rethe best thing, and nobody else
does them.

SPEAKER_03 (56:18):
You know, whatever.
I hardly attended.
The last time I was there, Ididn't go this year, but the
year before I went to a coupleof forums and I wasn't too
impressed.

SPEAKER_00 (56:26):
Yeah, well, we went to Marvin's.
We went to Yeah, Marvin's wasgood.

SPEAKER_03 (56:29):
Yeah, I guess I mean those but the like I went to the
POTA one and the way it wasdescribed, I thought it was
gonna be like something, it wasjust like intro to PODA.

SPEAKER_00 (56:40):
Like I could have done that one.
And we went to go support um, Ijust forget his name.
Uh Lost Nation Radio.
Chris.
Chris.
Yeah, we went to go watch hisvideo or his talk on his uh RV
or on the the the whole radiosetup and stuff.
Which uh yeah, it was a reallygood one.

SPEAKER_03 (56:58):
But and then we were doing yeah, I mean I thought it
was pretty good that one.
But like I said, I was some ofthem were like like I went like
what was it?
Oh, I went to the like the oneyou would have liked, which was
like being prepared, and it wasjust a guy with a bunch of sh in
his backpack.
I'm like, you don't need allthat crap.
No, I mean it was I mean, it wasjust funny, but I was like, I

(57:21):
was like, oh, I should go tothis one.
This is you know, see how howgood Paul is.
And I looked at this guy andhe's like pulling crap out of
his backpack, and I was like,dude, like try a color code
system, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (57:32):
But I'll tell you, all right, so being in
Massachusetts, one aspect whereyou you literally the government
doesn't allow you to be preparedis your Second Amendment rights.

SPEAKER_03 (57:44):
I know.
I'm right there with you.
I was just talking about I wasjust talking about that today
while I was at T Mobile becausethe girl that was helping me,
her husband carries all thetime, and he is a correction
officer in Bill Ricca, and hehad one time he didn't carry,

(58:05):
and he ran into one of theinmates on parole, and he
thought it was gonna go bad.
So she says he always cares.
I said, Well, don't let himcarry in in mass, but he's got
like one of those L cards thatlets him carry everywhere.
Yeah, the LEO.
Yeah, yeah.
So he can go, he can goanywhere.

(58:27):
But like me, God forbid, I orPaul, if we drive, we're at the
Pheasant Lane Mall and we takethat last exit to get out there
and get pulled over, we'relooking at a year in jail.
Oh, at least.
At least.

SPEAKER_01 (58:40):
But you get conjugal visits.

SPEAKER_03 (58:42):
Paul, you know that there's a there was a guy that
that happened to.
Like he literally just like dida UE and got arrested and thrown
in jail.
They're trying to change thatlaw.
Yeah.
But it's that's Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_00 (58:56):
Wait a minute.
Just so we can you know keepwith the theme here.
Uh all right.
Well, let's get let's get thistrain back on the Nearfest
tracks at least.
So uh how many million cellscome off the Nearfest from Matt.
Quite a bit, I'm sure.
Or Connecticut folk too, aswell.
You know, let's go down thatroad.
But uh, so uh yeah, at thispoint, I think yeah, we'll be

(59:20):
doing I forgot what we werereally getting into.
So Grouch, you're gonna be therewhat, Thursday, start of
Thursday afternoon on theweekend.

SPEAKER_02 (59:27):
Um so uh you can't check in before three, so I'll
I'll be there, you know, rightabout three to go through the
gate.
Hopefully, uh kind of get thethe same kind of location that I
got uh last year up on the hill.

SPEAKER_03 (59:40):
Okay.
So I'm just gonna drive right upthere then and find you.
I'm coming, I'll be I have towork Friday, but I'll uh right
after work.
I'll try to leave at like three.
So I'll get up there as soon asI can.

SPEAKER_00 (59:52):
Well, I'll be out there all day and hanging out.
So yeah, we'll um we got a bunchof stuff, I'm sure.
Uh Paul, you're gonna be doingsome you know video.
videos and hanging out andwhatever else.
I know I'm live streaming in themorning with Brew and Activate
with Shannon.
And you know, you're more thanwelcome to come hang out with
us, Paul, at at uh um Matt'sbooth in the morning.
Um and we're just gonna, youknow, kind of do a bunch of

(01:00:13):
different things there.
And then uh yeah, I'll be doinglive stream in the afternoon on
my channel and then we'll bedoing our live stream with
Lifree and Ham.
So yeah, you're gonna get yourfill for sure of all of us all
day.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:25):
So what's what's your plan though?
You're gonna you're just gonnalive stream from from Matt's
booth, Reliance Antenna's booth?

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:31):
Yeah, so Bruin activates usually about you know
an hour, 90 minutes or so, andwe'll do a live stream at 10 and
that'll be Shannon and I justhanging out Matt's booth.
We've got our usual kind of showyou know stuff that we'll talk
about.
We got our um bucket list itemswe're gonna talk about Poda and
and a few other things and uhI'm sure you know we're gonna do
uh we're we're borrow from ourLifreenham stuff.

(01:00:54):
You know, we're gonna do alittle um you know man on the
street with folks that come byevery once in a while and say
hello.
You know we're we got a coupleof questions we want to throw at
them when it comes to Podarelated stuff.
So you know we'll uh we'll dothat.
Shannon's getting stickers so ifyou're you know anxious to get
one because they're pretty coolI'm you know I'm gonna
definitely have to make sureI've got one or two uh on uh
laptop and on the back of thetruck all right hold on speaking

(01:01:16):
of that okay so she's goteyeball QSL cards which which I
get I guess are about likebusiness card size um but you
know it's like you just whateverit's your relative different
information um you know for whenyou meet people and I guess that

(01:01:37):
was a thing at one point thatlike the people people did they
carry these like little businesscard type things.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:44):
Yeah you call us fancy fucking YouTubers like I
don't have any of those.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:49):
Well that's that's not true.
I mean Mike has this that wellthat's the wrong side that's
Mike's you know so that's uh thesame size as hers or bigger like
they're just a business cardsright that's what that's how she
described it.
I haven't seen one yeah becauselike the YL ladies have one you
know I still have all these onmy desk you know on some of the

(01:02:10):
oh yeah so yeah maybe maybe uhyeah maybe I need to do some
cards then yeah I was thinkinglike that was on my list of to
do stuff for Liffery and Hamstuff but it's like I you know
it falls down and down it's likeeventually get to it so yeah I
agree.
Uh it's makes sense.
I mean how many times do we gooh just check our channel out

(01:02:30):
and they walk away and go whatwas this call sign again?
Yeah I there's a lot especiallylike uh when you're doing POTU
there's always someone thatcomes up just to throw out a
card so they could yeah I Iactually was thinking about that
the last time I did when I wastalking to that guy and I was
like shit I wish I had like abusiness card I could give them
it makes sense I mean I meanheck we have the ones for our

(01:02:53):
club that that's a little QRcode thing that I still keep in
my pod a bag that uh works outpretty well a lot of times
that's I have a handful ofthose.
Yeah which is nice because a QRcode on the back and you know
get some more information youknow kind of call to action
stuff.
But yeah it'd be good.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:08):
So we could make like a live you could make like
each one of your channel with aQR code on the back and then
they could just yeah if you if Iif I'll leave it to you guys.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:17):
If you want to design a 3x5 one grab a bunch
I'll give you the QR code offthe website we can point to our
website because our websitegenerates them automatically so
you don't have to go to like oneof those stupid generators to
find one.
Yeah feel free to make one Ithink you should make a t-shirt
with a QR code you ever seethose ones where yeah I know one
more thing thanks let me justadd it to the list here I'm just

(01:03:42):
gonna get out of the scan offront of my boxes.

SPEAKER_02 (01:03:44):
Go ahead scan that the QR code that oh man so yeah
we'll we'll be there at uh nearfest for sure um you guys
looking for anything or ifgrouch you selling anything at
Nearfest um so I've I'veactually I've been able to to

(01:04:05):
offload a lot of my extra radiothings um I do have a couple um
like little QRP kits um thatthey're they're built and I just
don't I don't I don't ever usethem.
So Tortoise has got a friendthat that's gonna have a table
and so he's gonna meet up withme at some point uh Thursday

(01:04:27):
morning before I head over uhand he'll grab whatever from
from my house to to sell um ifif if I could find a really
really amazing deal on an ID50 Iwould absolutely love to pick
one up um but it would have tobe like 150 bucks or less.

(01:04:50):
Well what's the uh allure to theID50 well um all right so
obviously I mean no no no I loveICOM um but I know that the the
the the the 50 and the 52 havethat auto fucking repeater scan
function and so I want that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:13):
Well and did you hear the the mini Bayofangs have
that uh Bluetooth programmingoption and it pushes out
repeaters like from what Iunderstand from the mobile app
the the Bluetooth programmingapp that you can from your
mobile app push out likewhatever you want for
configurations for repeatersites and tones and all that
stuff to the repeat I bought oneEric I know I heard it's not in

(01:05:33):
your possession though rightit's coming.
If I was gonna get somethinglike that I would uh I would get
the Vero yeah I would too I likethe Vero size uh the mini is too
small for me I I I almostimagine I I could see where it
applies for you Todd I will giveyou you know I'll give you
credit for that sense it makessense to have with you when
you're in the the work car andstuff like that.
But like outside of that I sawthe one Ralph has and it's

(01:05:56):
literally like a small littleI'm using I'm only using it for
the all-star.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:01):
Yeah that's about all it would make sense for
that's all I'm using it for.
Because I'm honest becausehonestly I mean I don't want to
bring my good Jesu 3D whatever Rkick ass radio that I have and
leave it in my work car.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:20):
Who talked about your little radio took around
broken because some assholessteal it.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:25):
And if they steal the bow good luck.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:30):
I don't I really don't think the reason is you're
stealing it because I do recallwe were both sitting there look
like total morons going how doyou set this thing in simplex
mode?
I can't remember what button doyou press it's more about that
than that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:43):
Yeah we walked like the whole park trying to do
that.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:46):
Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:48):
Two like you know two monkeys trying to figure out
how to open a banana but seeevery radio should be like that
should be able to have an appand you could just download you
know just be able to do it.
Why not?
I know so good for Bao Fang.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:04):
And if you're worried about somebody stealing
it just take take a piece ofparacord and run it through the
freaking the the the littlelanyard hole and then loop it
around your belt and it it won'tfall off.
Nope.
And the light I literally Ijumped out of an airplane with
my FT3D in my pocket.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:24):
So it could survive that it could survive a ham
fest.
It's not ham fest I'm worriedabout it just your streets
you're worried about forgettingit oh dude then don't carry it
in Ashua then you're fine that'swhere I work okay well then
they'll they have no idea whenthey get the little Bao Fang
mini they'd be like what's thislittle child radio they get this
out of a bubble gun I use one ofthe work cars we got like this

(01:07:48):
new one and I use it probablythe most like I was thinking I'm
like I could probably like putan antenna on here and they
wouldn't even know.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:56):
Like I bet you they wouldn't even notice it like if
I put a little antenna like onthat they probably wouldn't
know.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:01):
Nope dude they would just normally like you know
think it's just part of the cellantenna or something.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:06):
Just hide the radio under the seat.
Have have have have the coaxcoiled under the seat right and
and put a B and C uh end on it.
Right.
So that way you could justconnect it right to the HT every
time you get in you're good.
Then just put the coax backunder the seat when you're done.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:23):
Or or you could literally take like every time
you're done with the car justtake the antenna off the bottom
of the mag mount or whatevermount it is throw that in the
back of the trunk and no one'sever going to go in the trunk
for those cars.
I mean they're not throwing kidsback there or anything.
So you don't know back there.
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:39):
Well you'll give them something to pick the lock
with then we when I was inManchester we had a car and I
freaking had to open I and I hadto get something put something
in the truck and I opened it upand like some asshole left like
urine drug test.
Oh in the frickin' I'm like whatthe I was like you're gonna be
shitting me little cups of pee.

(01:09:02):
Who knows how long it's beensitting there dumbass.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:05):
Enough to make their own little uh you know science
lab.
So all right so so Grouch you'reyou know roughly have stuff that
you're gonna be selling so folksare interested in in grabbing uh
official Grouch stuff whateverthat might be I don't know or
radios that he's had or wantedto build or wants to get rid of
which I'm very proud of you myfriend dude uh it has been hard

(01:09:29):
like uh not because I don't wantto get rid of things but because
I know I know the value that itcosts to buy and acquire all of
the things that I have and sonow it's like well if it doesn't
fit in the RV and I don't wantto overload the RV right it it's

(01:09:53):
really coming down to like do Ireally need this no get rid of
it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:59):
Will I ever no sorry gone you know I I mean I dude I
got a collection of of huntingknives that I've acquired over
the years and I just put themonline 40 bucks for all of them.
Just just take them fucking alljust take them the likelihood of
how many did you actually use inthe collection?

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:18):
Probably maybe one and studied the rest every once
in a while yeah you could throwthem in the in the sled so you
could use them and mind you PaulI just want to let you know that
he's already alerted toeverybody on the winter field
day that we are going to besetting up the replica of Paul's
uh you know igloo right down tolike the scale models of the the

(01:10:39):
beds and everything and then weare the hot tent I know I'm just
saying that was the deal thatwas the deal I told you all you
got to do is come over look atwhat I got tell me what you want
to hang on to I will put it allin the sled and you can take it
to your house.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:54):
No I'm saying things that you want to keep we can
throw in the sled.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:58):
He wants all the things he's been saying that
already no no no there's there'sgonna be there's gonna be a tote
one tote with like my childhoodscrapbooks and those things
right and I'm gonna give that toyou to to hold on to um but no
as far as my ice fishing stufflike I'm I'm starting to get rid
of it.

(01:11:19):
So whatever you want you got tocome to my house and you're not
keeping the tents if somebodyoffers me if somebody offers me
good money for them I'm gettingrid of them.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:31):
Okay.
But you didn't want to get ridof them and that's why I said
you could keep them in the shed.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:36):
True but he knows he's going to be spending more
time in Florida in the wintermonths and he's gonna be a
snowbird but he's gonna be asnowbird in at 1400 feet you
know so it it's he's justchanging his patterns and
hobbies and lifestyle so youknow he could if he wants to go
back to ice fishing no tent'sgonna turn into a hammock I get
it totally fine I I I love Ilove ice fishing um I love open

(01:12:01):
water fishing you know justfishing in general but like yeah
it it it it's just it's to thepoint where I have so much stuff
like I just I I have to downsizelike yeah I mean I'm gonna keep
the house I'm gonna keep thehouse for another three years so
I don't I don't have toliquidate everything but like

(01:12:23):
anything that I'm not gonna useor I haven't used in the last 10
years like it's going.
Yeah dude makes sense I meanlighten your load and you'll be
able to use the resources tobuild like some other cool
basement I should just like Ihaven't used this whole top raw
I don't even want to look at itand just freaking toss it.
Put it this way I and I know youguys probably don't do this

(01:12:44):
every year like at the end ofthe year like December time
frame when like we have a greatsnow day all I do is I'll go
into all my freaking cabinetsand I'll be like do I use this?
I haven't seen this in a whileoh this is great and I'll find a
home for it or if I don't find ahome for it I like recycle it or
give it away or try to get itout of my position and I've had
to say it's been freakingfreeing because at that point I
freed myself up to like makemore space for other stuff.

(01:13:06):
And so you know and it's finebecause it's like you know I've
want like you know how it isit's like I'm rebuilding my
all-star in the truck and I'mlike thinking of all the things
I want to do for that but I likeI'm I got crap in my boxes that
I haven't used you know I myhope to one day do satellite
yeah I I have three arrowantennas my friend have I used
any of them no I carry them towherever we go but do I use

(01:13:27):
them?

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:27):
No they just kind of go back I mean whatever I'll do
it on it there'll be some likehigh new arrow antenna that can
track the satellites on a trackpodcast go buy another I'll end
up going by another one.

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:38):
So you know and that's like why I gave Tim my
elk antenna because I'm likedude he's gonna use it and guess
what he freaking uses it andthat makes me more happier than
it sitting in my box going Ihave an elk antenna and an arrow
antenna boy I'm one of the coolguys.
Anyway it's another story butyeah it's freeing for me.
So that I I I am proud of youman dump it you'll be much freer

(01:13:59):
you'll be like shit why didn't Ido this 10 years ago and you'll
be much happier because you haveeither cash in your pocket or
you gotten rid of it and it'sgotten to a better home and you
know you the your amplifier isprobably going to get you
somewhere sometime down the roadwhich is cool.
Yeah I mean we'll we'll see uhso the it's funny right the guy
that ended up buying theamplifier um basically what I

(01:14:20):
did was I sold him the amplifierfor what I wanted to sell the
amplifier for um and it was itwas uh a couple little things I
had a power supply at uh Astron20 amp power supply and he he
bought that for what I wantedand then and then I just said
okay I've got a I've got a Heathkit manual tuner that'll do

(01:14:43):
fully limit it's beautifulcondition I boxed it up well
taken care of uh I had uh a abox it was a complete 10 tech
QRP radio fucking station I wasnever gonna touch it it was
literally in a box all wrappedin freaking you know uh that
that egg egg crate stuff thatyou put on your bed like I mean

(01:15:08):
I I I boxed it up well Ipackaged it up well um I gave
them uh a milk crate full of CBsand a and a PA speaker and all
these miscellaneous things and Iwas like dude just take it all
just take it like I don't eat itI I don't know if you saw the on
our sidebar you saw the listthat Ralph sent out about all of

(01:15:31):
the the estates that he showedme the pictures of four barns
floor to ceiling of stuff radiosI mean like the guy had
quadruple you know uh sixversions of the same radio and
tubes like that you couldn'teven figure out and identify he
said the the Kenwood radios arelike sick and mint some of them

(01:15:54):
are and some of them are likelike stuff the Argonauts all of
those like classic tube radiosall like but like the guy like
the widow was responsible thewidow's like I didn't know he
had this much stuff like he hadliterally hidden stuff in sheds
that she never went into thatthey were pulling stuff out and
pulling it out like the list waslike four pages long.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:14):
So like yeah he he he clearly lived by the mantra
whoever dies with the most stuffwins.
Literally tennis I don't want tobe that guy.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:24):
Yeah dude you're much better off especially where
you're so mobile to you know getmore out of the experiences and
do stuff that you know you youreally want to do versus you
know go going back to like myfucking but list.
Well don't don't hang shit allover yourself that you've had
for 10 years.
You know lighten the load jumpjump with less yes not literally
but yes you know what I meanbecause we've already

(01:16:46):
established that it's not a goodthing.
So yeah I don't know okay.

SPEAKER_02 (01:16:51):
I think I think for me the the thing that I'm
looking forward to the most uhwith Nearfest is is just the
socialization of it.
Like as always you know um itit'll just be it'll be good to
see familiar faces that wehaven't seen in a while.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17:05):
Uh you know it'll be good to hang out up at the at
the campsite you know Fridaynight um or Thursday night you
know depending on who who'saround um you know is those
coming up said so yeah so justto kind of give you a little uh
uh who's who so obviously we'llbe up there Matt from Reliance

(01:17:27):
attention will be up theretortoise will be there um Chris
uh from um uh why I just forgothis channel um Lost Nation thank
you Lost Nation Radio he's uhyou guys seen him before if you
haven't he's the one with the uhTV news van that's uh all decked
out with HF who does contestinghe's great uh there's a bunch of
people and I'm gonna say this toeverybody we are not you know

(01:17:50):
even though we talk and jokeabout how we're ham you know ham
tuber superstars kind of blahblah blah or Todd gives us crap
about it dude don't feel thatyou can't come up and say hello
or come hang out yourself orcome hang out just you know even
if you feel like the leastcommon denominator is Todd then
fine go to Todd but in essencewe're all approachable we all
want to hang out we all comehang out with the common folk

(01:18:12):
we'll have our own tent don'tworry we'll have fun the the
lords the the lord paul and lorduh you know Eric we'll we'll
we'll kiss your ring kind ofthing but yeah no no come on by
hang out with us are you also alord uh not yet no I wish I was
uh Callum hasn't quite bent thatlevel yet I and I don't know
whether he does that like once ayear or it's every five years or

(01:18:34):
whatever and I don't know howyou get on that list.
Well I I mean you don't have toget it from Callum my my my wife
got it me uh a a lord thing uh acouple years ago no yeah but I'm
talking about like Callum sent ayou know from the X Commander
kind of Lord Callum kind ofthing you know so that is where
I was going though more but yeahproperty for sure I I've I've

(01:18:56):
got I've got uh I've got twolittle plots in Scotland and
yeah I know I'm I'm I'm a lordyeah lord grouch and that is the
the one place that you're nothaving to worry about selling
because it's a piece of paperyou can put that in a folder and
file it away it'll be up in mybarn in the box.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:14):
Where where is how much land is it?
Is it like one foot by one foot?

SPEAKER_00 (01:19:18):
Yeah it's it's it's super well it's you know so uh
it's awesome what when theystart uh selling is it marked
like with a brick like or is itjust a big open field and you
own one of those like is it alegit plot?

SPEAKER_02 (01:19:33):
Yeah I think uh I think they put little flags uh
to mark the little plots butyeah I got I got uh I got one
from LaFroig uh so it's it's onthe Isle of uh Isla and then
I've got uh one from whateverthe the organization is there
that too bad it's not like youknow 20 by 20 there we could put

(01:19:53):
like one tower ship all thehardware out there and put a 50
foot tower on that one all theseflags bought like 50 plots put
your flag on the very top of itwe're gonna have a beam and and
somehow we're gonna feed youknow coax to it and remote
shack.

SPEAKER_00 (01:20:11):
That'd be cool.
It would figure out how Shannonlike what is Shannon remoting
into because in essence she'sthe one over in you know you
know England uh you know makingcontacts with her son so so she
lived over there is that how shegot the English no her boyfriend
slash fiance uh lives over thereand she was supposed to go over

(01:20:32):
there um I don't know the allthe details she can inform you
but long story short she got hercall sign over there too as well
you know so she just took theEnglish test yeah she just took
her uh basic or whateverfoundation I don't know what the
like license classes are overthere but she took the lower of
the two to get uh the sameprivileges but isn't it
reciprocal no no so if you goover to if you go over to

(01:20:56):
England if you move to Englandyou can't use your American sign
or call sign?

SPEAKER_03 (01:21:03):
No but if you go over to England can you use it?

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:09):
If you're visiting it might be sapped so there are
well this list is freakingfreaking huge but you can go up
to the FCC there's a list ofthem that you can Iceland's won
Indonesia these are allreciprocal agreements you just
have to get you know you don'thave to do like any call sign
stuff that like she had to doyeah right C E P T was that was

(01:21:39):
like uh on the technician testif I remember right it was yes
it was I I couldn't remember sodon't worry because there's
different agencies likedifferent like Europe has its
own agency and then like therest of the world has a agency.

SPEAKER_02 (01:21:53):
Yeah the the I R U right I T R U.

SPEAKER_00 (01:21:57):
But I think you can go I think you can I I thought
you could go like your call signslash and then in the
reciprocating in the reciprocalcountries you can not like where
you have to get a call sign likeyou know can't can you like a
reciprocal country yeah so whatdo you have to do in Canada like
Walt did it in in Poland.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22:18):
Yeah right but what do you do when you go what
what's the slash the country?
Yeah sometimes so what withCanada it would be a uh you'd be
a V E so it would be W and S T Dslash P E I think it's the other
way V E slash W One S T Just thecountry you're in slash your

(01:22:42):
call sign.
But it also may be different forother countries too you just
have to read their response butwe don't do that like are you
supposed to do that for whenyou're in different states or
different regions like when yougo to Florida and you're W1 S T
J because I've gotten likepeople who get all excited
thinking I'm in you know I'msitting in Florida and I get
someone from like Alabama andthey're all excited because they

(01:23:03):
got New Hampshire I'm likesorry.

SPEAKER_00 (01:23:05):
Yeah that sucks those are probably old guys who
don't realize that you knowanybody can get a vanity call
with whatever number I remembergrowing up like I had a guy who
was uh Ohio like he was an eightcall sign and he had got special
permission with forms and stufflike that to take his eight call
sign into mass where he finallyyou know moved instead of
getting a a one call but yeahyou always like you always

(01:23:27):
guarantee it's like oh I got afour call you know you knew you
were getting somebody from NewYork now it's like oh I could
get someone down the streetbecause of you know Envis or
something like the four callsNew York New York would be a two
yeah two sorry yeah so but youdon't you can keep now if you
move around the country you canjust keep your call sign you
don't have to change it if youpermanently move to like
Florida.

SPEAKER_02 (01:23:46):
Right now yes but who knows what's gonna happen in
two or three years but whateverwhen I got issued my call sign
right it was KC1OQN and it wasawful and so I instantly went
and applied for a vanity and itwas KF4 TPY.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:24:04):
Yeah with the ones granted it confused everybody
because I've lived in NewHampshire he just randomly gave
you that one or you picked it upno I I I picked it okay yeah it
was kilo fishing for therapywhich is that's why I know
before you kind of you kind oflet the air out of my balloon
you know kind of when I firstmade contact like oh wow

(01:24:25):
somebody who's not you know inour call zone it's like cool I
get to meet somebody cool nosorry he lives in New Hampshire
in the same town I live in yeahso I lost all that so all right
well let's uh let's kind oftouch on some of the details
real quick here because uh Iknow Todd's uh bedtime is uh
getting near here and uh he'sbeen with T-Mobile all day so

(01:24:46):
you know this this is a uh abreath of fresh air I think for
him 11 a.m to 6 p.m they ask youfor a job you want a job dude
I'll tell you right now I knowhow to freaking scan the system
because I got listen I didn't Ihad more devices than they than
the program would do so I saidall right we'll just open up two

(01:25:07):
accounts they're like oh that'sa good idea so then you open up
all the it resets all the otherones so I got everything paid
for and it's just like and in 90days you can just merge the
accounts I said you're damnright I'm gonna do that work on
all your existing they wereawesome about it and but I mean
look at there is a way I couldtell people sorry Paul I could

(01:25:30):
tell you how to get like a newphone what you do is you go buy
a phone right they'll give youup to$800.
So if you're on Verizon go buy afucking brand new phone and then
go switch to T Mobile they'regonna give you$800 to pay off
that phone.
So if the phone was$1200 youknow boom you get a brand new
phone for$400.

(01:25:50):
Verizon does that too but yeahthey all all carriers do it all
right so they lure you in butVerizon's there's no contract
it's 90 days before I can cancelit to get the rebates.
So I was like and it's the priceis guaranteed for five years.
I was like that's fuckingawesome because Verizon was just

(01:26:11):
raised me up 20 bucks didn'teven just decided to put six
dollars extra on three devicesof mine.
So 22 years down the drain.

SPEAKER_00 (01:26:22):
Don't want to play it play what?
Oh that wasn't an 80 minute rantthat was a that was calm cool
and collective so if you want toknow how to get some good cell
switching companies besides I Idon't want to ruin your
partnership agreement that youhave with T-Mobile because I
know you get a stip a stipend ora spiff every time I was ready
to I was ready to take a fuckingjob there.

SPEAKER_03 (01:26:44):
I was like you know what fuck my job I'll just go
work here.
I know I have to have it easiercommission.
I'm like a shit I was here forfucking the whole shift anyway.

SPEAKER_00 (01:26:55):
So yeah so we're gonna do a couple of things
obviously uh for folks that wantto uh if you're in the all-star
mood uh yeah we'll have anall-star uh hub set up so if
you've got a mobile R star setup uh and you want to uh you
know communicate in and uh talkin um we'll have uh 580871 which

(01:27:15):
is our liftry and ham node it'sactually under my call sign so
if you're looking for uh it inthe all-star list look uh under
N1J UR and it'll come up butyeah we're we're in test mode
with that like we mentionedearlier in uh the beginning of
the uh episode but we are uhgonna be adding more stuff to it
and would love to have you guysjoin in and be part of uh the
community because that's reallywhat we're setting it up for.

(01:27:37):
Um and uh yeah love to talk withmore people and just stay in
touch more often and that's oneway to do it.
So we're gonna try to test itout at at um Near Fest.
So uh I'll have mine running upuntil I get to uh actually I'll
have it running all day becauseat that point it'll be uh up at
uh you know Bob needs to get histechnician in an all-star node
who does Bob Cop.

(01:27:58):
Oh yeah well he's got definitelygot his technician I know he's
been studying I texted him acouple of days ago right but
that would be freaking awesomethen he could just I could talk
to Bob in the morning.
It would be cool.

SPEAKER_03 (01:28:08):
So you hear it Bob come on get going prove Todd
that you can get your technicianand we'll uh we'll test you
online I guarantee you Bob couldprobably get his all-star node
set up faster than Todd yeahthat's why we like keeps my
technical skills sharp and mypatience but anyway it's all

(01:28:32):
good so uh yeah we'll we'll bedoing you tell me oh it's real
easy just connect it to yourphone yeah it's not that easy in
most cases it's easy oh just inmy cases it's not I'm sorry I
know you're the TV generationwhere you know you like the
remotes and you I look at I dideverything I went on YouTube
there's no freaking YouTubevideo on how to connect to your

(01:28:52):
hotspot on your phone yep Iagree there's not in that case
it was definitely not and I hadto learn you know the hard way
through it but it's it's uh weshould make one then uh do I
look like I have time but wedon't even know how to do it so
maybe you can't I can't well Ican now I mean I've why I've
done it a couple of times atthis point.

SPEAKER_00 (01:29:14):
So anyway we are doing that and but I know
obviously mesh tax has been apopular thing obviously with
most ham fests.
So uh lift free and ham is goingto be one of those things.
Yes the T1000E.
I got mine here as well uh oneof my two charging and I'll have
my uh you know rack uh wirelessone and I don't think I'll have

(01:29:34):
time to get the G2 set up um inthe truck so uh no big doubt but
with that I am gonna post on theDiscord uh under the Mestastic
channel under LiveFree and Hamour QR code for uh scanning the
Liv Free and Ham channel sowe're gonna keep it simple
because we don't really know howmuch uh you know stuff is gonna
be there in terms of Mestastic.
And we're just gonna try to testit out.

(01:29:55):
I know other ham fests and otherguys who are way smarter than us
when it comes to Mestastic havetheir own custom setups and
stuff like that.
If we get to that point, um comesee me.
You know, because I'd love tohave a conversation with you,
you're way better at Mesh Taskand you know what's going on.
We're gonna keep it simple withthe channel.
So scan that QR code over in ourDiscord.
I'll post that in the next dayor so.
Um and we'll uh you know leteverybody know that that's gonna

(01:30:17):
be available.
Um and you know uh it's one wayto just stay in touch with us.
We're gonna do you know try toremember to do some uh reminders
and announcements as we're gonnado live streaming or hanging out
or if we're doing some you knowcrazy giveaway with stickers or
whatever you know we can youknow we'll use that as a way to
kind of just stay incommunication with folks or just
say hello.
Simple as that.
And uh yeah I think outside ofthat in our live streams you

(01:30:38):
know come see us.
We are not we don't bite uhWatson doesn't either and he you
know he's licks you know justdon't pet him when he's under
you know he's a doing his jobbut uh you know outside of that
uh you know we love to say comeby say hello you know definitely
say hello to us we all have ourstickers with us um so you know
you can if you want your bigsticker uh hound like us uh you

(01:30:59):
know you know definitely get afew and uh yeah outside of that
uh outside of that just yeahsimple as that I mean it's it's
like Paul said Nearfest is aplace that we love you know
getting together hanging outhaving conversations now just
for the record this is gonna beairing after Nearfest.
It will yeah so in essence youknow most people will get all
updates although for you Patreonfolk you know because you get

(01:31:22):
this way in advance there you gopost on the Discords get people
interested you know come youknow create some chatter create
some noise spread the word we'regonna try as much as we can uh
you know everywhere else so youknow keep an eye on our Discords
uh for all of that stuff so youcan you know share it on other
places because I know there's aWonderland Discord that's got
all of the hams there and youknow so there's plenty of folks

(01:31:42):
out there.
Uh we just want to includeeverybody and have some fun.
Cool so any last parting wordsguys before we shut the shit
down see you in Airfest.
Yeah or if we do see you inAirfest hello because after this
airs you know we'll we'll have arecap.
Well no we won't you'll hear thelive stream and that'll be our

(01:32:05):
recap.

SPEAKER_03 (01:32:06):
So go my thing is 7 p.m if you're in the Bedford New
Hampshire area get on theBedford repeater because the
Grouch will do one be runningone of his famous nets if he
gets there on time.

SPEAKER_00 (01:32:21):
Yep that's 1466 is the repeater PL what 100 100
yeah okay and uh yeah tune yourradio in we do the nightly net
every week and Grouch will bethe uh NCO for that night and uh
you won't be disappointed Iguarantee it we never are and uh
I like to have fun with it hedoes a great job at it no

(01:32:44):
guarantee no doubt about that umand yeah we'll we'll start our
live stream so you know you knowcheck our channel out Glyphry
and Ham uh but we're gonna do itlike right why did I just freeze
there?
What the heck?

SPEAKER_03 (01:32:55):
We're gonna be doing it what we start around like
630.

SPEAKER_00 (01:32:58):
630 or so yeah we'll kick off the live stream it'll
just kind of be banter in thebackground and then we'll really
kick the show off like right atyou know yeah outside of that
I'm looking forward to it shouldbe fun.
Cool right well with that let'sclose the doors tonight.
So thank you again for hangingout with us and again on another

(01:33:20):
Live Free and Hand episode.
We truly appreciate everyone wholistens to us and hangs out with
us and uh yeah it it definitelyshows uh Todd I actually went
back and verified really quicklythat 600 downloads that we got
in the day was legit.
Yeah so I don't know who'sdownloading our entire catalog
but we appreciate you know it'squite a few folks uh so
hopefully you enjoyed everyepisode and thanks again for

(01:33:41):
subscribing to the channel andhopefully uh you continue to
support we broke a thousanddownloads this month yeah which
we've never done before in amonth and it's not even over
iterate that in our little uhyou know so I'll uh add that to
our list of accolades that I'vebeen tracking for a long time
but yeah it that it's awesomeand we can't thank you guys

(01:34:03):
enough for you know justsupporting and hanging out and
listening to us uh and so yeahyou can connect with us as we
always say um head over to ourDiscord it is super active I
mean I'm we're doing thisrecording right now and Discord
just kind of flying by andthere's a ton of people having
conversations so it's alwayssomething good going on uh so
head over there and check thatout um you can subscribe to our
YouTube channel make sure youhit the bell uh and so you get

(01:34:26):
notified when we go live onFriday uh or any other time we
do the live show uh you canalways leave us a voicemail at
978-233-1142 and as always ifyou feel so led to support the
show um financially you can headover to our Patreon or use any
one of our bias appear links andwith that we thank you guys
again and always head over toliftfreeandham.com for all the

(01:34:46):
latest stuff show information uhlatest swag and anything you
might want to learn more aboutthe hosts and with that thanks
again for listening uh and fromall of us here at lift free and
ham 73

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