Top Five POTA Hacks - Elevate your POTA Experience - Live Free and Ham Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we get into our top five favorite poda hacks
tonight on Live Free and Ham.
Hello and welcome to Live Freeand Ham podcast.
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, new England andbeyond, and so we're thrilled to
have you here, whether you area regular listener or tuning in
for the first time, and weappreciate you and thanks for

(00:20):
joining tonight's episode, asalways.
So let's get into the show.
I'm your host, eric call signN1JUR, and I'm with both my
hosts.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's Paul N1OG and Todd W1STJ.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right, cool.
Well, as always, before we getinto our topic, you know we've
got a few things we want tocatch up on.
Some really good stuff's beengoing on.

(00:57):
If you've been getting thepodcast for a while, we'll see
you next time.
Check back often and check itout.
Um, as we say always, we're allsporting our usual gear here
tonight, the.
I got the classic on.
Paul and todd both have, uh,the, the custom.
What is it?
The?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
what the heck that looks like yeah, flex hat.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yep, thank you and so so.
So with that, get out there, get, get your Liffrey and Ham gear.
We'd love to see you guyswearing it and, as always, we
appreciate everybody who'spurchased on our storefront.
And something that we've beentalking about for a little while
, this is called Get your Ham On.

(01:39):
We've got a little brain trusthere that we've been putting
together some cool, interestingtopics.
But one thing that I know whenI drive around that I'm finding
I'm doing more often than usual,is that you're driving in your
truck or your car and you kindof scan around the horizon and
you're always kind of on thelookout.

(01:59):
When you go buy a car thathappens to maybe have a ham
antenna or a couple of antennas,and you know you're kind of
like, oh, is that a ham?
And you know you always want todo the tip of the hat type
thing to.
You know, give them the kudosthat they usually deserve for
for sporting the antennas.
But you know, maybe if you'relike me, you might want to let
them know like, hey, I see yourantenna, but you know, putting a

(02:20):
qsl card on their dash or theirvisor seems a little weird and
passe and kind of odd.
So I think we came up with agood idea here and we've got the
solution for you guys.
So if you want to head overright now to GetHamcom, you can
check out our little hams.
And these little hams have alittle disc on the bottom and

(02:42):
that message on the bottom saysyou've been hammed.
And so, hey, you're in aparking lot and you happen to
scan the horizon, like I said,and you see a couple of vehicles
with ham antennas on it.
You know you're going to wantto go over, just like the
jeepers do.
They put them on their dashes.
They put them on their uh, youknow, door handles.
Fill in your call sign.
There's a nice little spot thatyou can write your call sign in
and a URL that they can go to,and this little buddy will sit

(03:04):
there on their dash or in theirwindow and when they get back to
their truck or car they'll belike what the heck's that?
And you know, lo and behold,you know you get the ball
rolling and you know you canstart to.
You know, promote ham radio,get people interested.
And you know these littlethings are going to ask people
what you're doing.
You know ham you're doing.
You know ham radio already doesthat.
Now.
You know, hey, we're alwaystalking to aliens, so now you
can hand them a little pig andyou can say you know, get your

(03:27):
ham on and, uh, you can headover to our store or just go to
gethammedcom to find out more.
You know, we're right now.
We want, we're doing a littlegrassroots thing, so we want to
get a lot of pictures.
So if you've got hammedyourself, you know, make sure
you tag us in uh with the poundsign hashtag of get ham or got
hammed, and we would love to seethe photos.

(03:48):
So keep it coming.
We appreciate this.
And if you want to run over toour store, like I said, pick up
your own.
We've got them in small packsand very large packs and we
always like to give them away toour show.
So just keep an eye out forthose.
So, all right, as always, ourfeedback.
We love feedback.
We've got a couple of ways youcan always reach out to us.

(04:10):
You can do SMS show notes, havethat link in there and you
leave us one.
We'll happily receive one and Ithink we got one this week and
we'll dive into that in a second.
You've got the voicemailchannel.
You know this is our special7.200 channel.
You can check out that.
Leave a message.
Tell us what you think about theshow.
Leave a question.
Tell us that we need to renewour warranties on our HF radios.

(04:31):
I don't care, you know, we'rehere to listen and that number
is Anybody, nobody.
Oh, we all forgot it.
Failure, failure, all right,all right.
Failure, failure, all right,all right.
Well, as we're queuing it uphere, that number is
978-233-1142 and you can go andleave us a voicemail message and

(04:54):
we'll play it on our nextepisode.
So leave a review, like I said,ask a question, tell us whether
you like the show or not.
We're all standing by, uh tohear what you have to say and,
as always, you know the, the oldmethod.
That's just a one step abovethe snail mail approach.
Uh, you can always send us anemail, livefreeandham at
gmailcom if you prefer, and Iactually uh have a review, uh in

(05:17):
uh doing good.
That was sent via email, so itis still very possible and and
as always, we will be coming upevery month our live stream.
We always have once a month, inaddition to our regular
episodes.
It's always a surprise, as wedon't even know when it is
sometimes.
So you know, whatever that meansto you is that you got to head

(05:38):
over to our YouTube channel.
You got to subscribe and yougot to hit that bell to get
notified when we do go live.
Got to subscribe and you got tohit that bell to get notified
when we do go live.
That way, you can be part ofthe fun and the action.
And, uh, come join us at a livestream show, uh, in the near
future.
So, all right, last but notleast, we got a little secret.
You know, if you want to be oneof the cool kids, as always,

(05:59):
head over to our patreon page.
We've got a link on the lipring ham website.
You can pick it up there and asa subscriber, you get immediate
access to a bunch of our shows.
You get all the backstage kindof content.
You get to hear therapysessions live from Todd.
You can hear all of his innermusings all out there in the
open, and we just love it.

(06:22):
We want to share that stuff withyou.
You have asked for it.
We're delivering.
So if you want to get thosethat information, you can go
over and subscribe to ourPatreon.
We also have a bunch of othergiveaways discounts, early
orders on our merchandise andmuch, much more.
And, as always, membershipstarts as little as three bucks
a month and you get a wholebunch more that I haven't
mentioned, but I'm sure is allavailable, and you can find out

(06:54):
more up there on our patreonsite.
Wow man, we gotta shorten thata bit for sure.
So all right, well with thatlet's dive into our first.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your
attention?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news
story.
Everybody, we got some news.
Slow down, boog, let me handlethis.
We've got some news.
I've got bad news and bad news.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
I have reviewed ship's personnel Captain.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Congratulations, you've got mail, todd, we got
email, we got mail.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, we did get some mail.
Let me just pull it up rightnow so I guess I'll read it to
you.
I was pretty excited when I gotthis.
I kind of popped up on my emailand I was like it said that you
have mail.
And I checked it out and I waslike nice, all right, here it
goes.
Thank you, Paul, and Todd andEric, for your tireless effort

(07:42):
to be good examples andambassadors to our wonderful
hobby.
Your comments are inspirational.
I am looking forward to thefuture adventures and fun.
73, tim KC1 QDK.
Thanks, tim, that was very nice.
So what was that?
Our second, third, third.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
All third alright we've gotten three.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
We're going to put a little counter here on the left
hand side that basically justcounts the numbers as they go by
did we count Paul's test?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
hey, he submitted it.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Be careful what you write.
That's what they always say.
Well, we appreciate that, tim,but man, now we actually have to
behave and act.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Our age right whatever, tim is a big support
of ours and we're a big supportof his.
So, uh, he's been on thepodcast a few times and, uh, I'm
sure he'll be on it again.
So thanks, tim, appreciate it.
So keep them coming, guys.
Let's uh fill up up my inbox soI can read more than one email.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Todd wants a lot.
Bring it on.
You heard him.
Bring it on.
That's all I have to say.
All right, well, as always, youcan thank again.
Thank you again to everybodywho's left us voicemail or
feedback.
As Todd said, you know, bringit on, we want to get more.
Left us voicemail or feedback.
As todd said, you know, bringit on, we want to get more, we
want to see more.
So you've got one way, andagain, it doesn't even have to
be sms text, you can also sendus via voicemail too, as well.

(09:11):
Um, and we'll make sure we playthat uh on, uh, our next
episode, and uh, we'll ridiculeyou for it either way.
But all right, okay, so withour next one doing good, good,
doing good you do, that's good.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Do good, do good, you're doing good absolutely I
do good, good, I'm doing good,bob doing real good.
Right now my only outlet is myham radio all right.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, we always aspire to do good in ham radio.
We, we try to do it on thisshow and obviously it's paying
off in dividends.
Um, and tim said so.
So, whether you know, you mightbe assisting in a disaster,
providing communications forthat road race, uh, in your
local town or city, or maybeyou're hosting a cool podo
meetup.
You know we all love toparticipate in some form of ham
radio activities.

(10:00):
So you know there's one greatway and one outlet now that you
can share what you've done withyour club or a bunch of guys and
gals got together and did, andyou know we want to basically
share and rejoice in thosemoments.
So I say, bring on the gooddeeds and share your story with
us.
And there are many ways, likewe mentioned earlier, but I'm

(10:21):
going to touch upon here thatyou can go and share a story and
I've got one today and I'llallude to that in a second.
But again, it doesn't matterwhat it is, whether you had a
firsthand experience with atotal stranger explaining ham
radio while you're activating apark, teaching a student, a
family member, a neighbor, thejoys of ham radio, the list goes

(10:41):
on and on.
So this week's episode I got uman email from an old friend a
long time ago, when I was in myyouth days, so that that would
put me back in like 1991.
How old were you, uh, paul, andwhat were you?
Still in diapers at that point,or come on now.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
I was 10 years old.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay, 10 years old jesus, 10 years old.
I Okay, 10 years old Jesus 10years old.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
I was born in 81.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
So I was um, I was 20 .
Partying my ass off, having agood old time and PSC.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
All right.
Well, that's, uh, anotherconversation for another day.
But Alan, uh, w a one H, a HM,an old friend of mine and I
remember very fondly from mypolice amateur radio days in
Westford when I was growing upin a small little town he sent
off an email.
You know, very first off,apparently in the what I'll call

(11:42):
the 2024 W1LF debacle, my QRZpage got trampled with the new
club call for Liffrey Ham and inresetting all of that mess, all
of my QRZ information to getback to our original call got
wiped and I didn't pay attentionto it.
I thought it would all be good.
And so he sent me a nice long,stern email saying what gives

(12:04):
man?
You know, you're on live freeand, ham, you've got your own
YouTube channel.
Why can't you update your QRZpage?
That's the least you could dofor us.
I'm like, what are you talkingabout?
And so, lo and behold, itbrought me to my QRZ page.
And, yeah, my QRZ page wasblank and I was like, so I had
to go back through, added allthe links in there.
I sent him an email back and himand I have been corresponding a

(12:25):
little bit, you know, but wewere sharing some of the stories
and he brought up, uh, you knowhow we had our live stream uh,
on, uh, I think ham radio scary,or ham radio can be scary, and
uh, you know he mentioned that.
You know he didn't feel I was anarc.
You know, even though all myguest hosts, you know, even

(12:47):
though all my guest hosts, youknow, said I was that, uh, the
pumpkin patrol was a great,great thing that we did in town.
Um, and it was actually very,very, very useful because he
told the story that I totallyforgot that.
Uh, you know, one of my mentors,um, you know who started the
pumpkin patrol with the policestation, um, you know, the
police were very like, kind ofnervous about, like, having
these hams out doing this stuffand the the story goes, as I'm
told, about having these hamsout doing this stuff.
And the story goes, as I'm told, is that these hams that were

(13:09):
getting ready to go out to dothe first pumpkin patrol had
stumbled upon the teens who hadcases, the spray paint to
basically deface a building intown to show their angst to the
town and the police and whatnot.
And lo and behold, that kind ofstarted the pumpkin patrol in

(13:35):
town to reporting that to thepolice and the police were able
to save the city from thedefamation of whatever.
And whether there's a stretchto that truth or that story, I
still think it's a good story.
I remember them very muchtelling me that as a youth, so
it was a good memory.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Still a narc.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
I know I know whatever, but with that, you
know it brought up some reallygood points and you know I love
that club.
That was my very first clubgrowing up and those guys and
gals over there have been doinga great job.
If you are in the Mass area andyou're looking for a great club
, check them out.
They're the Police Amateur RioTeam of Westford.
They no longer associatethemselves with the police as

(14:19):
much as they did before, butthey kept the name Check them
out.
You can check them out at partor wb1goforg.
They have some great stuffgoing on there and it's a great
group of guys and gals to plugin with them.
And I say thank you for sharingthat story, alan, and
appreciate you giving me gruffand crap from my QRZ page
because apparently everybodyelse fell asleep at the wheel,
including myself.
That's the example.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Not for nothing, but you're more famous than I am, so
your QRrz page should be betterthan mine let's not go there.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Mister, I like your dog everybody loves watson and
that other guy, eric.
Yeah, exactly how it played out.
It's like your dog.
Why doesn't eric have a dog onhis page?
He does.
I'm like I'm going to put myroofie white little Bishon on my
page.
That was really lower my rating.
All right, cool.

(15:13):
So with that, you know there area couple of ways you can get to
submit your own doing goodstory.
As always, you can always goover and leave us a voicemail at
nine, seven, eight.
You can always go over andleave us a voicemail at
978-233-1142.
And we've got a webpage forumthat you can go over to
livefreeandhamcom.
Forward slash, do good, all oneword and fill in the forum and

(15:38):
we will make sure.
Speaking of dogs walking by,there goes Watson, you heard his
name.
So, yeah, you can leave yourreview there or leave your story
there and we'll be reading iton the next episode.
And, as always, as we throw thegauntlet down, because we know
there are a few of thosediehards that are the type A
people if you're a dedicated hamoperator, you can head over to
your Winlink client and sendPaul an email via Winlink to

(16:00):
N1OG and if he gets it, we'llinvite you on our show, our next
live, and you can tell thestory there and hang out with us
and you know it'll be a blast.
So cool, all right.
Well, now to our favorite Xsession here.
Hold on a second.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
I just got a question .
So this doing good wasbasically your old friend,
mentor guy in your old ham clubwas basically doing good by
telling you to get your head outof your ass and fix it to your
Zed page.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
It kind of turned into that.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
I just want to make sure that was doing good.
So if our things aren't up tostuff, please let us know.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
We'll happily share it on the air.
All right, that's pretty good,speaking of, you know our stuff.
Are you ready for what are we?
Section six now or five?

Speaker 2 (16:53):
still no, we're still listen before we start this.
Oh, there goes.
Watson five is very difficultand it's very.
These guys that came up withthese questions are very.
They make them very confusingbecause I'm getting them all
confused there's a couple yeah,like guys, like the grouch over
there that come up with thequestions, did you do some of

(17:15):
these questions?
Is that one of your gigs?

Speaker 3 (17:18):
I'm not on the question.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Pool committee now, oh, you're not so like they,
they, they get you.
You know the voltage and it'sjust, and they're so close and
it's like I'll read them quick,I'll do.
I'm like, oh, I knew that whenI do the wrong one.
So the one thing I know is whenI get to the section five
questions, I'm gonna have totake my time and read them and
make sure I'm not gettingconfused, because there's some

(17:41):
of them are so similar it's likeone word difference well it's
been taking me well.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
It's been taking me a longer time to get to the 80 90
percent um efficient rate so sowhat I'd like to point out, and
you may or may not know wherethis, but uh, leah nass finally
got her general.
My friend, she took the testand she's passed her general she
may be working for her extra?
I don't know.

(18:08):
No confirmation there, nopublic.
So just you know, I'm justsaying.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Leah.
She had been working on thatgeneral for over a year.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
A year, I know.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Hopefully you won't be All right.
Well, you gave me three weeksto say.
You're taking your general test, remember?

Speaker 1 (18:28):
And I started studying, so that's all I have
to do is say the next threeweeks you're going to study,
cram it in, and we can haveadded this episode.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
I need to go.
I need to go away to someprivate place where no one knows
where I am.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, a private island.
We were scheduled, sometimenext week, I think, to go to a
private island, no one knowsright?
Yeah, private island, sometimenext week, I think, to go to a
private island somewhere we weresupposed to.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
We were supposed to go listen.
It was like an omen.
The first week like november itwas, I think it was during
election, it was either that.
But it's raining down there.
It's been like they've been inflood watches so I was like
sweet, because it sucks whenit's raining, I don't feel so
bad then yeah, yeah, we were.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
we were all going to go away and activate an island,
but uh, you know that would havebeen fun week in the future, so
, all right, well, withoutanything further ado, let's get
into it.
And now for something a littleextra, with Todd W1STJ.

(19:25):
All right?
Well, you've heard it here.
This is where we help Toddstudy for his extra class
license.
All right, each episode we pickthree questions from the extra
class.
This is one of them.
We're going to test hisknowledge and hoping he gets

(19:46):
closer to his upgrade.
So if you would like to followalong, you can head over to
hamstudyorg.
Great little app.
It's always a great resource tohelp you prepare for your test
and it's recommended by threeout of four volunteer examiners.
Boy, holy crap.
The ARL was unavailable forcomment at the time of survey.
Without further delay, I handit over to our quiz master, paul

(20:10):
.
Take it away.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
All right, todd.
Continuing with sub-elementnumber five, here is question
number one.
How is the Q of an RLC parallelresonant circuit calculated?
Is it A reactance of either theinductance or capacitance

(20:33):
multiplied by the resistance.
B reactance of either theinductance or capacitance
divided by the resistance.
C Resistance divided by thereactance of either the

(20:54):
inductance or capacitance, or DReactance of the inductance
multiplied by the reactance ofthe capacitance.
See what I mean, say that threetimes fast yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Well, you know what I'm going to go with D.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
I think it's B alright.

Speaker 3 (21:30):
So Todd says D and D is incorrect and Eric says B and
B is also incorrect dividingyeah correct answer is C it is
dividing.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
That was the trigger Divided.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
So the explanation, fundamentally, regardless of
circuit configuration, Q-factoris defined as the ratio of
reactive power.
It's represented as P sub Xover dissipative resistance
power.
So there's your formula.
In a parallel RLC circuit, theinput voltage is applied equally

(22:14):
across the three branches.
Using the version of the powerequation with voltage and
impedance terms and consideringthat at resonance reactive
impedance of the inductanceequals that of the capacitance,
all for reactive and resistivepower.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Okay, when the definition is a tongue twister.
You know it's.
It's a trick question.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
All right, well, here's, here's some hints.
Okay, resistance is the firstword and only one of the answers
for the parallel version ofthis equation, of this question.
Q is a ratio.
Therefore it'll be a division,not a multiplication.
So thereby you're doing 50%.
Rlc is resistance divided by Lor C, inductance or capacitance.

(23:03):
The correct answer has the wordor in it, or the correct answer
is the only one that startswith resistance.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Let's go back and see those questions again.
I mean the answers, or or Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
I can set the building on fire.
That's my take on it, alright.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Well, let's get going with question number two.
What coordinate system is oftenused to display the phase angle
of a circuit containingresistance, inductive and or
capacitive reactants?
Is it A, a Faraday grid, b aMaidenhead grid, c polar

(23:53):
coordinates or D ellipticalcoordinates?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
I'm going to go with C polar coordinates.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Eric.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Hey, we're going to put a little Christy in this
system.
Yeah, I'm going to go with C.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Right and.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
C is correct.
I get it.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
So, to explain, polar coordinates are often used to
display the phase angle of acircuit containing resistance,
conductive and or capacitivereactants.
In a polar coordinate system,each point on the graph has two
values a magnitude and an angle.
So your hint is polarization ismeasured with an angle and

(24:54):
phase is measured with an angle.
So polarization, polar.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
I would have used just coordinates, because that
was the only one that hadcoordinates.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Well, you can go in and you can request the ability
to edit.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, okay, oh graphs in turn.
All right, so here's a look atfigure E5-1.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
And what I'll do is I'll try and blow it up for you,
for the viewers.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
I can't even see the numbers on it it just says .321
yeah alright, we'll skip it no,no, that's fine we can do it.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
If it doesn't show correctly, you're at a
disadvantage.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
So it's not fair.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
All right, so here we go.
What is the relationshipbetween the AC?
These have a heart.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Can I skip the real test?
All right, all right.
Can I skip the real test?

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Alright, alright.
What is the relationshipbetween the AC current through
an inductor and the voltageacross an inductor?
Is it A?
Current leads voltage by 90degrees?
B Voltage and current are 180degrees out of phase.
C Voltage and current are inphase or D Voltage leads current

(26:29):
by 90 degrees.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
I'm going to go with D.
Voltage leads current by 90degrees.
Voltage always leads current.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Yes, you are correct, Great job.
So a helpful way to rememberthe relationship of current and
voltage in inductors andcapacitors is Eli the Iceman.
So in a capacitor symbol C,symbol C, current I leads

(27:05):
voltage E let by 90 degrees.
In an inductor symbol L,voltage E leads current I by 90
degrees.
Further goes on to explainthere, but well, this is
question number three.
Oh no, it's four.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Right, this is question number four yeah, yeah,
yeah, he's already did two andI missed one, so I missed the
first one.
Two for three oh, bring it on.
Well, there you have it, folks.
Two out of three isn't bad.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
See what I mean.
They're confusing and you gotto really yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
You just have to memorize the answer I would have
just kept giving him questionsthrough the whole episode.
Well, you get ahead through thewhole episode.
You want to do one.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
It's just an hour-long study session.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
We could do like Ham Radio DX did 24 hours of Ham
Radio.
We could do 24 hours of testingwith Todd.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
I'd probably get it by then.
It'd just be like me studyingon the phone.
It'd just be studying on thepodcast.
I'm sure people would love that.
Maybe people studying for theirextras might like that, but I
think everyone else We'd have toturn it into a drinking game,
because that's the only way,paul and I could have some
enjoyment out of it.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Every time you get to run you do a shot of.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
You take a sip out of your whiskey glass.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
There you go.
You know it and you saw itthere.
The ham radio glasses are outand about in the storefront, so
make sure you go and get one ofyours before they're gone,
alright well so with that youknow if you're studying for your
technician general or extraclass, like Todd is.
In that case, hamstudyorg is agreat resource for you getting
your ticket and, as always, likewe say every time, and we mean

(29:03):
it if you recently received yourlicense or upgraded, let us
know.
We want to recognize you on thenext episode for your hard work
and effort, and you can alwaysemail us at livefreeandham at
gmailcom or leave us a voicemailletting us know that you got
your ticket for an upgrade andwe'll share it on the next show.
Well, we're down to the regularshow notes here, so, in usual

(29:27):
format, let me ask paul, how hasyour ham radio week been?

Speaker 3 (29:31):
my friend well you know what, actually not too bad.
Um, I got to be on the Thursdaynight playlist for for the
first time ever, which wasexciting, with my, my shortened
and and re recut, you know,summit on the air video.
I like.

(29:53):
I like the second cut a lotbetter, granted, you know, I
shortened it down, I got rid ofthe majority of the hike, but
you get the summit, you get theactivation.
I gave a little bit ofcommentary in there.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Nice voiceover, my friend, good job.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
I appreciate it.
It's one of those things I gotto learn, to get better at being
a little bit more comfortable,just kind of telling my story in
the video.
But then yesterday drove downto Rhode Island for the day.
I got to activate ScarboroughNorth State Beach in

(30:29):
Narragansett.
Very nice, beautiful beach, gotsome awesome footage on the
beach, made 44, 45 contacts andwe left early this morning,
picked up my wife's new kittenand came home.
So that was the end of the hamradio week Nice.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Cool.
Well, you didn't participate inany of the sweepstakes this
weekend at all.
No, I didn't do any contestsAll right.
Well, not bad there.
Man Activating any day of theweek is always a good day, in my
book, for sure.
And you got a cat for the bonus.
You know, I don't know how he'sgoing to handle four or five
other dogs, but only time willtell right.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
The cat will be all right, because we get two other
cats, we get three dogs, sooutnumbering the family, but
this one's all black, and so Ihad to make sure that my wife
knew that K-Murder also had anall black cat named Satan.
And so this one's a cobweb.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Oh, okay, cobweb for short, I'm sure, or get the hell
out of here.
You're my way, alright cool.
Good on the videos there, myfriend.
Keep them pumping.
We love having you on theTuesday Thursday night playlist.
It's always fun to have and seenew videos.
It keeps the interest.
For sure it's motivating me tofinally finish off a lot of the

(31:56):
other videos that I've beensitting on.
I'll be able to get back inthat rotation as well and uh,
you know it's all good uh withpodo there.
So, uh, 44 is a good number,especially, I think, when
there's solar flares too, sobands were a little challenging,
but all good either way.
So with that, my friend todd,how is your ham radio week or
non-ham radio week been?

Speaker 2 (32:18):
uh well, hf, it's been absolutely crappy.
I uh, I've had I have my radio,my go bag, my poda bag in the
car ready to go, batteries allcharged up and I keep trying to
get out there.
But um, work has been uh, kindof getting in the way.
A lot of things been going on.
I've been working on a prettyintense case and um, yeah, so

(32:40):
it's not happening, but I amlike dying to get out there and
do one.
So but I did find out today Italked to my brother-in-law and
we do a, we do a family vacationwith his family and our family
and a couple of my nephews andwe, my other brother-in-law and

(33:03):
his wife, so we all go.
We went down, like one year wewent to Big Bear, another year
we went down to Florida, thisyear we went to North Carolina.
Well, this year we're talkingabout going to Yellowstone.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Not during field day, though, right, no, no no, no,
no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's probably going to be in the fall, um, you know,
maybe the week before memorialday, I don't know we're looking
at.
We don't want to go when it'scrowded, so we're not going to
go in the summer.
We want to go like they wentone time the week before
memorial day and he said thatthere was like no one there.
He had like it was just like noone there and it was.
He said it was awesome.
But what's cool about it iswe're going to be staying inside

(33:43):
the park, which means for aweek, wherever I go, literally
if I'm in the park, right, likeI can honestly, like if we're
staying at a cabin or a hotel, Idon't even know where we're
staying.
Or even if I have an RV,wherever I'm at, it's going to
be POTA land.
So I'm planning on doing a lotof POTA on the off time and I
don't have to go anywhere.

(34:04):
So I mean, literally I couldjust walk outside.
So I was kind of excited aboutthat.
And of course you know him andmy wife are giving me crap about
it, making fun of me, but it'sgoing to be a cool vacation.
I can do POTA like at any.
Like you know know, when I wasin north carolina it's like I
had to get all my crap drive setup like I mean, if we're in a

(34:25):
cabin I'm just gonna set up my,leave it all the time you gotta
pull a ryan and do it for me,yeah, so I'm kind of excited
about that.
Um, I'm also, uh, you know,working on trying to figure out
when I'm gonna to have time, butI want to start doing YouTube
and get some videos in there Notas, not as intense as you guys,

(34:45):
but, um, so I've been lookingat, um, how I'm going to do that
and I might go back to an Applecomputer, uh, to do that.
So I've been doing someresearch and stuff and they're
just so damn expensive.
But the way I look at it is, ifyou use the Apple computer,
it's kind of like a phone.
You don't like it.
After a couple of years youreturn it, you get up.

(35:07):
I mean, if you, you like it,but you want to get the upgraded
version, um, you can return it.
And I I've been looking at it.
They say like, uh, the new, thenew laptop, it's like the Mac
book pro and the Mac book air.
I don't think I'll need a Pro,but let's say I get the Air and
I find out that I really getinto this YouTube, you know
making videos and stuff, and Ineed to get the more thing you

(35:28):
can turn it in.
But the other thing that's niceis like these computers.
People are using them for, likeyou know, an average of five
years, five-plus years, beforeneeding to kind of upgrade
because you know they're they'reso good right out of the box
and that they've got like thelatest and greatest.
So I don't know I'm it's a lotof money but I really need.

(35:51):
I don't think I'm going to beable to do all the video editing
that I want to do on my ipad.
Um, I think I'm going to needthe computer for that and well,
but start small man, start small.
Yeah, I know, I mean, yeah,I'll probably do one or two, but
I really need a.
I think you, I'm going to needlike a laptop.
So the question is is when I'mgoing to be doing this editing.
There's a lot of my downtime,so, like, if I'm at court, gotta

(36:15):
wait an hour or two.
Nice to have a laptop can messaround with it.
You know, if I'm at a trainingthat I've already been to five
times, I could do that.
I'm at a staff meeting, I cando it.
I'm just thinking of like timesthat I'm just bored out of my
mind, wishing I was doingsomething else.
You know now I do my studying alot when I have to go to those,

(36:37):
uh, those things.
But um, I just think it wouldbe easier for me to get more
stuff done, because my problemis I come home from work and I'm
not physically tired, I'm justemotionally drained.
I don't feel like doinganything, especially sitting at
a computer and editing and thatkind of stuff.
We'll see, I'm going to keeplooking at it.

(36:59):
I've been watching some YouTubevideos and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
Very cool.
We're looking forward towhatever you got.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Also, I don't know if this is ham radio doing, but I
did a lot of work today clearingout for my DX Commander.
A lot of work I had to chainsawout today.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
You might want to pull a coax out first and get
that set up, so by the time youwe assemble it in the garage,
it's going to be the firstsnowfall, so you want to make
sure the coax is alreadyunderground.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, well, I, you know, we had a.
We had some like windy days andstorms over the summer and I
had a big tree fell across myspice that I was doing it and I
uh, I've been working at it LikeI.
I honestly, like I at first Iripped everything out with like
a metal rake that I was using,the, the, what do you call it?
The, um, the weed whacker, withthe metal blade on it, and then

(37:53):
I took the lawnmower over itand there's still shit like
stuff, and then this tree fellon it, so I finally got cut off,
so I've got a huge.
I'm waiting for the firstsnowfall, because I got a huge
bonfire to burn and it wasn'tsupposed to.
It was all gone beginning ofthe summer and now it's like
it's huge again and I can't burnbecause we're in red flag
things and I really want thesnow to come down.

(38:14):
So once the snow's on theground, I can torch that thing
well, now you should dig yourtrench for the cable.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Then get, get that underground I think I'm just.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
I don't know if that's gonna be such a pain.
You know how hard that's gonnabe, how far it is.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
You don't have to go down that far, man.
You only have to go down likemaybe an inch, two inches of
minimum.
You don't have to like really,yeah, I mean, it's not doing
anything, being uh, you know you, even if you want to be lazy,
you can throw it on the ground.
It doesn't really matter.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to run
it through the woods Outside thegrass until I get to the point
when I've got to go across.
That way, I'm not Digging somuch In the woods.
It'll get buried by leaves anddirt and everything else, so I'm
not too worried about that.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
So yeah, we'll just get the Lord Callum.
You know a little little.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
You know wire holder, downer things yeah, they're
called, not landscape stakes,they're called yeah they're
landscape stakes, basically likehorseshoes.
They look like thinnerhorseshoes and they basically
just stakes it down with a cableand all the grass just covers
over his wires eventually yeah,well, I'd have to.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
I'd have to do it across the grass.
So I'm not.
I gotta cut the grass, so Igotta go over that.
But I think in the woods, youknow, maybe I'll do that, pin it
down a little bit.
But, like I said, there's somuch crap back it'll, it'll just
bury itself, right.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
So that's the way my stuff is yeah, cool, okay, well,
good on that, looking forwardto videos.
Like I said you know,eventually we'll hopefully get
to you know, hopefully see youdo another photo sometime.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
I'll do one.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Gosh, it's so hard to get good health these days I'm
doing great.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Todd.
How was my hair radio week?
Oh, is that what you're doing?
I thought you're pointing tothe grouch saying I was grouchy.
Jesus, why didn't you sayanything?
Why don't we just start withyou?

Speaker 1 (40:18):
starting off with my week was like this it's not
customary as the host to be thefirst person of attention, All
right.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Eric.
So how was your wonderful hamradio week?
Because I know you've done somethings.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, well, I don't know about ham radio this week,
but I definitely have been doingsome things.
I've been more motivated to getsome videos done.
I uh, I wanted a small, simplelayup project, so I put a frame
around my ham radio, not myhammer, you know my geocron, and
so that's all mounted andlooked all pretty and the white

(40:52):
acceptance factor.
Actually, uh, I got a thumbs upapproved, although her last
response was like you're crazy,why did you backlight it?
But you liked the frame, so atleast I got the points for the
frame.
Um, so the backlight shethought the val light was a
little excessive and I'm like,well then, I better not turn it
on to the rainbow or led or anyof the uh, you know cloud scenes

(41:16):
that the govi light set chainlight set offers.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
But uh, it's all good oh it yeah, and so uh, yeah so
that was a little side project.
Office condo, you know one ofthose, like you know, swaying
beams that will show everyone,uh, where you're at break
through the ham signal so so Ibuilt, built, uh, built that,

(41:41):
and I finished, uh, my batterytray.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
So we talked a long while back about building a kind
of like a battery commandcharging center, and so I kind
of assembled, um, some locationin my back storage room where
all my ham radio equipment is,where I set up all chargers and,
uh, several, like basicallymultiple shelves and stations
that I'll do a video on.
But now I can take all of my Ijust forget what the heck

(42:09):
they're called oh, mesh tasticdevices, charge, them all on a
stand in one location, all thebatteries that go with that, all
of my recording equipmentbatteries, all my ham radio
stuff is all in one spot.
So I now, when I empty out mybag and I come back from Rapoda,
I just drop batteries in anddrop, you know, connectors
everywhere and everything's allgood.
So I can go to one place andI've got it locked in my brain.

(42:30):
Now, paul, I'm just telling younow you hear it here that when
I leave I know everything's allhooked up, it goes right in my
bag and my battery's charged andmy camera batteries are working
and you know so forth and so on.
So so I think I've got thatnailed down, um, but you know,
we'll see how it tests out andproves itself and so, yeah, I'm

(42:51):
proud of that one.
Finally, and like I said, II've got another project that
I'm building a 100 amp hourbattery.
I, uh, if todd, you know,todd's aware of a, a nice little
uh, uh, modular, like clicklock system, sort of like the
milwaukee stuff.
But uh, this one's out of thoseand I found a nice little case
that's going to be a really coolbattery setup.
So I'll have that on my channelsoon.

(43:13):
But I'm learning how to uh wireup batteries and get all of the
solar chargers and, and, uh,you know, distribution blocks
together and kill switches andthe whole nine yards.
So that's been a fun littlewiring project to get my hands
dirty with.
And and uh, hopefully we'llhave up on that channel, but uh,
yeah, I haven't had played muchradio.
I alluded to Paul.
Uh, you know the sweepstakesman.

(43:39):
Whoever decided to have theexchange that way just needs to
be dragged out into the woodsand beaten profusely.
What, like, what is yourthought process of?
Like, okay, numbering score,and then, if it's numbering
score, the, the type of classyou're in, which is a one letter
identifier, a um signal report,which is always five, nine

(44:00):
anyway, and then a specific codeor check.
You have to use the word checkand then you have to use the
year you were licensed, the lasttwo years, a year, and then
your call sign after and that'sthe, that's the exchange.
All the time and I'm like what,what's your like?
What's your thought process?
That like, granted, you try tomake it more difficult for
people to remember, because whathappens is you get these guys

(44:22):
who are, you know, trying towork the 85, you know sections,
to get the cup from arl, andthey hate to get interrupted by
someone new who's like uh, whatcontest were you in?
What's the exchange?
Uh, I can't remember when I waslast licensed.
And then they go into, liketheir law, like they're having a
big rag chew with this person,and he's like what year were you

(44:43):
licensed?
Let me look it up.
And they go look it up.
He's like you're licensed in2024.
So you know why is this such ahard time?
And so, yeah, I just I was likethis is a long contest, yeah,
so I threw a few of those outthere and got bored with it
really quicky and said it's notfor me.
So, yeah, that was my ham radioweek and, uh, you know, I'm

(45:04):
glad, uh, I at least played alittle radio there, and, uh,
looking forward to, uh, you knowwhat next week brings, because
we've got some cool stuff on thehorizon uh, which I'm going to
keep under locks for now, but,uh, we can talk in future
episodes about, and so, allright, well with that.
As we alluded to at thebeginning of the episode, we
were going to talk about podahacks.
I mean, that's.

(45:25):
This is this kind of the seasonthat a lot of youtubers are in.
They're talking about new waysto, you know, make your ham
radio experience easier, whetheryou do poda or you do you know
anything related to your hamradio.
How can you improve yoursituation, whether you improving
speed, performance and setup orteardown, or little things that

(45:45):
make your life a little easier.
So we're going to talk about ourtop five hacks that we all
share.
We probably share some of themand some of them may cross over,
but ultimately we're going toshare what we know and what we
love to do when we're outactivating a poda or maybe
hunting if you got a couplehunting ones, um, uh, and so

(46:09):
that covers everything gear youknow, setup you know, tear down
whatever sky's the limit, and sowe're going to start with
number five and work backwards,and one's going to be our best
hack that we think uh that wewant to share.
We're going to go in aroundabout here and and paul's
going to keep all of this in, uh, the notes for the show.
So, uh, if you ever want to goback, you can obviously go back
and watch the pod or listen tothe pod again, or you could just
check the notes section out,and all of that stuff will be
listed there and and hopefully,uh will be useful to you and

(46:32):
maybe you'll glimmer a nugget ofuh you know, pote of truth out
of the some of that stuff.
So how about, uh we start?
Who wants to start first?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Paul can go.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
All right, well.
So I always feel bad with thesethings because I'm the guy
that's all about being preparedand like you know.
So, all right, well, all right.
Number five on my list thething that I think is, on most
days it's a game changer, butit's not always necessary.

(47:08):
Uh, is a lightweight foldingtable.
Uh, I've got a, uh, a cabela'saluminum folding table.
Um, it's, it's, it weighs nextto nothing.
Um, it's, it's, it weighs nextto nothing.
Um, it's bulky, it's big, youknow.
So like to to do a long trackfrom my vehicle with it.

(47:28):
It's not ideal, uh, you know, Imean yesterday I think I did,
maybe, maybe a quarter mile walkfrom my vehicle, uh, carrying,
uh, two chairs and my table andmy radio bag and all of the
other accoutrements.
It is doable.
I would say that's my numberfive, having a nice foldable

(47:51):
table.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Is your foldable table like solid aluminum, or is
it fold down even smaller?
No, you've seen it, it's theone I always have okay, okay, ah
, I know what you're talkingabout now I got okay, all right.
So similar kind of what alittle?
Right, yeah, the cabela is likecamping, little tiny table okay
, cool, yeah, no, I I thinkthat's definitely a must,

(48:15):
especially if you're doing potas, although sodas you know,
you're not bringing anything,you're just trying to find the
closest nearest rock so that allthat all works.
So, all right, cool.
So tables there.
So, uh, what, what's he taught?
What's your number five there?

Speaker 2 (48:30):
uh, you know, in terms of uh, top five hacks well
, I would say number five ifyou're going to a park that
you've never been to, um, figureout where you're going, make
sure you can get to it, uh,through you know your GPS ways
or whatever you use.
Uh, because sometimes you'llsee on the POTA app it'll show

(48:53):
you like the dot and it's likein the middle of the woods and
there's no roads or anything.
So you got to kind of puteither the coordinates in or get
on, um, get on a map and kindof see where the roads are and
kind of figure out where you'regoing to go and just have that
prepared.
So you're not like in thegeneral area and you have no
idea where you're going to go,because you're like, wait a

(49:15):
minute, this is, you know whereis this park?
Um, so if you don't know wherethe park is, kind of prep that
out and you can do that before,even, like you, even if you
drive by the area I've, I'vedriven by areas and not going to
do a park, but know that I'mgoing to do it and just scope it
out a little bit and then kindof know.
And another way I do that is,if I don't, if I can't find a

(49:38):
place to do it.
I'll, I'll reach out to someonewho like the latest activator
and send them an email and say,hey, where'd you activate?
And so it's just kind of likeprior, you know, if you know
where you, if you don't, if it'sa new park, you've never been
there.
You want to be prepared of whereyou're going to go and what you
need to set up.
So, would you say, you do itlike 24 hours in advance, like a

(50:06):
couple hours in advance, likethe night before, kind of deal.
What's your mo?
Yeah, I mean.
Yeah, I mean it would be like,yeah, maybe the night before.
Or you know, if I'm I'm goingto go and eat, like the
afternoon, you know, maybe inthe morning, do it.
And you know, just take a fewminutes to to set it up.
Um, and, like I said, sometimesI like I have a list of places
I want to like parks I want todo, and I know the general area.
But if I have, if I'm drivingby there, I might want to you
know, if I have some time, scopeit out and see where the best
uh spot would be, instead ofjust trying to show up and be

(50:27):
like, oh, now, what you know,because you might find.
You might find, like, you don'tneed a table because there
might be a picnic bench orsomething.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Other times you might say, hey, I need a table
because there is nothing, it'slike just a field or whatever
now any one specific app or acouple apps you use to do that
planning with is like you have ago-to a few apps outside of the
pod app yeah, I mean I use.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
I mean I'll tell I use ways for everything.
I don't even use the.
Uh, all the other ones I'vetried aren't as good as ways and
um, so, yeah, you know, but II'll use.
I'll use like google maps orany of the map things where you
can kind of stretch it out andsee and simultaneously use the
poda app to see where the park,at the park, boundaries are and

(51:09):
then compare and try to say,okay, where can I get a, where
can I get the road?
Or use the poda app.
You see where the roads are thatmight come into it, you know,
and sometimes you got to hikeinto them, so then you know.
Sometimes you got to hike intothem, so then you know you got
to be prepared for a hike andyou don't just show up there
thinking you're going to pullinto a parking lot and be in the
in the park.
Sometimes you have to, like,walk into it.
So, uh, you know, and I do thata lot when I travel.

(51:30):
So when I travel um down south,I will sometimes go to the park
and the park might have awebsite.
So I'll investigate that too.
Look at the website, see whatit's at and then go from there
so great cool, all right.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Well, if you've got anything you want to throw in on
you know something like that,paul as well feel free to jump
in on top of, uh, anything thatwe all throw in the ring just as
a add-on there.
But uh yeah, I'd say with that,uh, I would just do one add-on
would be google maps.
I love doing the street viewtype stuff.
That always is a big plus,especially like where the
markers aren't like exactlywhere the park is and you, you

(52:08):
want to see what thedrive-through kind of scenario
is.
Um, if it's at all possible,you know, to get you know the
street view stuff.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
But uh, yeah google maps is a good you know saver
for me where I can you can?

Speaker 1 (52:18):
drill down to really street view level.
Good thing there, all right.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
I've done everything that Todd was saying, but for
those that are hunters and theysubscribe to OnX Hunt, that app
is absolutely phenomenal forbeing able to see the park
boundaries.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
That's all offline too, right?
Yep, yeah, so good up there forsure, If you can get the
subscription on that.
I know a lot of like four byfour guys off.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Overlanders use a lot of that up.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
So good stuff, all right.
Well, for me, my number five isand I alluded to this in the
the um, what and I alluded tothis in the what's Going On In
your Hand Radio Week is abattery charging station.
I am notoriously a dumbass whenit comes to flipping my
batteries to actually a realcharging wall ward or my camera

(53:13):
batteries or anything in the mixof in between, and I've always
just been like my bag's ready,so I'll grab it off the shelf
and I'll run.
I very much have to dip it inthe shelf and I'll run.
Um, I very much have to tip itin the bud.
I'd say, if you get a place youcan put, you know where you put
your bag, uh and all your podogear.
If it's not in your vehicle,you know to basically set up a
small little you know shelf andand you know get uh your your

(53:35):
battery charging devices andeverything all kind of just you
know mounted permanently wasdouble side tape or whatever.
Where it's a simple like youjust take the barrel connector,
you take the power poleconnector and you just plug it
in and walk away and let it doits thing.
Um, you uh will save yourselfuh many a headache and me be
speaking.
You know firsthand experience.

(53:56):
Yes, I have plugged intochargers that weren't in a nice,
good, good, well-setupenvironment and plugged them in
thinking they were charging thenight before and, lo and behold,
they weren't charging becausethey weren't plugged into the
wall.
So, yeah, that's just my adviceSet yourself up for success and
that's a good place to start,because a well-charged battery

(54:17):
is a good place to have a goodactivation.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
All right, anything with five, or we just roll to
number four.
Let's go to four.
Pull it All right, pull it Allright.
So number four on my list isactually software and it's Adiff
Master.
It's free, but let me tell youthat there are times where

(54:46):
there's going to be somethingthat may be off in your logs,
and having a good bit ofsoftware to fix it it just makes
things so much easier.
Several times I've been insituations where I've had to
split my log due to, you know,the park being in two states and
I'm trying to get credit forboth states, uh, or or even,

(55:09):
like yesterday, during thecourse of logging, my tablet
messed up and so, like I'vealready got the next guy on, on
and he's given me my signalreport already and he's waiting
for me to respond and thetablet's not entering the last
contact.
So I did what I had to do Iwiped it and entered the next

(55:34):
guy in and just moved on.
Well, it happened to be that Ihad video, so I went back to the
video and I I was like allright, here's the guy's call
sign.
I know it was between this timeand this time.
So I just created a new entryin adif master and I, and I made
sure that that guy got creditfor hunting me very cool.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
That's a good good apple.
Leave that link in the shownotes so you can go grab that.
That's uh.
There's always a challenge.
I know a lot of new Podo people.
They all go to the websites andthey all go to like oh how can
you make an ADF log and exportall that stuff?
And it's like use ADF Master.
You will be much happier, likePaul said, using it it's free?

(56:17):
Yeah, totally well worth it.
All.
Right, paul Todd, what do yougot for your?

Speaker 2 (56:21):
four.
So my for my hack is I ampretty, I'd say, 90% of the time
I always bring my poda bag withme in my car.
It fits perfectly behind thedriver's seat if you don't have
passengers uh, easy access.
And the reason I do that isbecause you never know when you

(56:45):
might have time or you drive bya park and have to stop, um, I
mean because when I didn't dothat, I all of a sudden, like
unexpected time would come upand I'm like, oh, my god, it's
beautiful, let's go.
And then, oh shit, I don't havemy radio.
So I have my quota bag and whenI go home I lug it out, bring

(57:08):
it inside, but I leave it rightby the door and then in the
morning it's right there and Ishove it back in the car.
I don't, I don't want to leaveit.
I mean, the spring, in this timeof year, it's not so bad, but
when it it's too hot or too cold, um, you don't want to just
leave it in the car.
But yeah, that's my hack justhave it with you and, um, you
can grab and go and, uh, younever know when you you might be

(57:29):
able to activate and it mightbe a time where you know if I
get out, if I'm, if I'm workingand I get out of a meeting
that's away and I'm driving backand I'm supposed to be back at
I don't know, say three o'clockand it's the meeting gets out at
noon, I might take a longdetour to get back to the office
.
Right, you know um, but yeah, Imean, you never know um and

(57:53):
sometimes you can't do it.
I mean, obviously, if you, ifyou're going somewhere and you
get the whole car packed orwhatever, but if not, sometimes
I'll just throw it in the truck.
But uh, it's probably a good, agood idea, so that that would
be my thing Bring your bag withyou.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Cool, yeah, I'd agree .
I still move from vehicle tovehicle, but I'm doing less
traveling now.
So, uh, you know scenario I putuh hf in the truck so even if I
forget everything, I can stillplay from the truck.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
it's more expensive route yeah, you take it to the
next level there, because thisis supposed to be hacks, not
like break the bank, right?

Speaker 1 (58:34):
well, yeah, right exactly right, yeah, so that
that's an overhack, but for me,for my hack, uh, I'd say, uh,
you know, mesh net zippered bags.
These are like on amazon.
They're basically called likeladies makeup bags.
They're see-through, black mesh.
They come in all differentsizes.
Um I yep, it's sort of like uh,todd's, the todd's yours aren't

(58:55):
see-through, but mine are likesmaller see-through, so you can
actually see the contents inside.
I use them for parts storage forall my FTA digital stuff, all
the connectors I might need forthe radio that I have in the bag
, any sundry cable connectors.
We all need the cable chargerto charge if you need lightning

(59:19):
to USB or you need USB-C toUSB-A.
I keep all of those cables andwhatnot in those little bags and
I just throw them in the frontpocket.
They smash down really lightlyand I never have to touch them.
I always make sure and this isthe one tip that I always learn
from Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL.
He always said never I'll putin the the word bastardize your

(59:43):
other bags.
Make sure every bag has thesame set of stuff in it.
That way you don't go intoanother bag and steal a
connector.
And if you have to, you know,make sure you keep a little list
and I don't have those lists,but I try to keep all my bags
separate, um, and all theconnectors appropriately, so
things don't uh, you know, everget lost and the only time they
do is when I'm actually usingthem out in the field and I

(01:00:04):
forget to.
You know, I let someone borrow aconnector or whatever at least
I can go back to the bag andreview, you know?

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
hey, I'm missing well , you know how you're doing that
.
You know a little thing thatI've been thinking about doing
is that bat, that box thatyou're building your battery box
in.
One of the things that they dois they're stackable.
And I've got in the back of myjeep.
I've got a big kind of bin Iguess they call it like the
large toolbox, got a little traybut I've got like my first aid

(01:00:31):
kit in there.
I've got my tool.
I have a tool, all my tools, somy wife and kids don't steal
them.
Or in this tool, what do youcall it?
Those round where you roll themup to a roll thing.
I got that in there, just stuffthat I don't want anyone
touching but I need and it'sgood to have tools and stuff in

(01:00:51):
your car.
So I got all that crap in thereand then I've got it comes with
.
You can get a milk crate iswhat I call it and that snaps on
top and you can interchangethem any other way and I've got
that.
Now what I can do, what I wasthinking of doing, is like okay,
baseball, I get the milk crate,put all my baseball shit in it,
I'm going to baseball, take theother one off, plop that one on

(01:01:14):
.
But they also sell a toolboxone with sliding drawers.
They also sell a parts one.
You can either get a half sizeor a full size and you know you
can arrange it so you can putyour tool.
So I was thinking of like doingthat for um, the ham radio.
I was thinking about gettingtwo small ones, like two single

(01:01:35):
ones, because that would makeone top and um put my RC stuff
that I need those parts for, andthen the ham radio for the
other things.
That way if I'm doing andsomething breaks and I don't
bring the toolbox or whatever, Ineed a part, I have it.
So similar to what you're doing, but I like the way that you
can stack and interchange andthen you can move things around

(01:01:57):
as needed.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Good point.
I know Paul's got these.
He can talk about his setup andI love his color coding, so go
for it, my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Well, so I valued my setup a little bit higher on my
list than you, so I actuallyhave my colored canvas bags as
my number two item.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Well then we will hold off on that one.
Then I don't want to giveanother.
But you know, yes, he does acolor coding system and it's
intense, you know, but makessense.
I mean, I I can't adopt colorsbecause I need labels or I need
to see stuff.
I don't know what it is, it'sjust my thing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
But it's an awesome, and if you're, if you're
colorblind, it won't work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
But okay, true, right .
Well, I'm not colorblind.
But yeah, Todd that wholemodular system whether you do
Milwaukee or like any of thoseother manufacturers out there
definitely well worth it.
I know the one that you and Ireally look at.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
The thing is they even have a cooler.
You can attach a cooler to thetop of it.
I mean, you can make the thinghuge, but what's cool about it
is that they're interchanged andthey're so easy to pop on and
off.
So you could.
You know, I'm just trying tothink, like, what are better
ways to do it?

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
Well, they are coming out with a first aid kit.
Like you know, the smaller,slimline ones that have the
compartments inside they'remaking a first aid one.
Specifically they are.
They're partnering with anotherfirst aid, like one of the big
first aid guy, like bags thatthey you know companies that are
out there, I can't remembertheir names, but that's supposed
to be coming out soon.
So, because I was going tobuild like a first aid one for
my you know my- truck.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Yeah, I mean I just have a.
I just have a first aid bag andI just shoved.
I mean I, I think it came withlike the basics and I just,
anytime I need more stuff, Ijust shove more stuff into it.
But that would be kind of cool.
But it's got a cooler.
I mean it's got everything.
And what's great is like I, Ican move it around, I can take
it out of my jeep, throw it onthe garage.
I mean when I go to the flyingfield most of the time I need

(01:03:49):
all the space to put all theplanes and I just take the whole
thing out and leave it on mygarage and then I mean in my
driveway and then go to thefield and come back and then put
it back in so I'll leave a linkin the show notes to what todd
and I are talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
It's called the, it's made by lowe's, it's called
tough built.
So if you've seen some of theirstuff it's a little pricey but
I think it's like good quality,like milwaukee level yeah, you
can't a little cheap.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
It is very high quality like I honestly don't
think you can break this craplike it is solid good stuff all
right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Well, going on to number three here.
So, um, I you know, paul, whatdo you got for your number three
?

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
all right.
So my number three is the extralarge mouse pad that I got from
quirky qrp and I know there'suh, there's a lot of different
variations out there withdifferent brands or whatever,
but this one I really like theham-related information that
it's got on it.
The dual side of it is not onlydoes it protect the radio when

(01:04:51):
I'm putting the radio down ontop of it, but I wrap the radio
in it, so it gives an extralayer of protection when I'm
putting the radio in my bag.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
Cool, yeah.
Yeah, those mouse pads aregreat.
I haven't bit the bullet yet tobuy one, but I'm starting to
warm up to it.
But warm up to it in adifferent way.
We're working on some secretsquirrel project, so we'll talk
about that a lot later, so keepan eye out for that.
Okay, cool, do you have one ofthose mouse pads at all, todd?

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
yeah, I got a bunch of them.
Um, yeah, I've got the quirkyqrp ones.
I think I got two.
I won one on uh on hrc rightyeah, and I also bought one
prior to that and then I I justbought a bigger one from Mike.
So, yeah, I've got a bunch ofthem and I actually keep

(01:05:47):
forgetting to put it.
And you remind me, I've got toput it in my bag because I have
the two extra ones I'm not using.
They're just sitting here andI'm like I've got to put that in
, and every time I forget, andthen I go to do an activate, I'm
like oh, oh, where's thatfreaking mouse pad I should have
put in?

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
so well, I'll tell you in general, you have to stay
in your band.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Privileges, yeah, it wraps an 891 perfect yep, no, I
know, yeah, I had it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
I had it wrapped once so yeah, even with the rails on
them, the zero rails on it noproblem.
Nice, cool.
Well, there you have it.
That's a tip, okay, so yeah, soyou're, uh.
So yeah, what was your numberthree?
You didn't do three yet, didyou me?

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
I, I'm getting old me , no, so.
So this is I don't.
This is one that I do, but Ithink you know you guys won't do
this because you don't use mybuddy pole pro.
But if you're a buddy pole pro,poda user, huh, mine's in my
truck.
Yeah, all right.
What I do is um, I leave um.

(01:06:49):
It's set up for the last band Iuse.
So if I'm doing 20 meters, youknow I'll have it set up for 20
meters so I can quickly just addit on, plug the thing in, not
pull those things.
I leave them on there and Iknow exactly what to do.
You know, if I change it to 10and what I normally do is start

(01:07:10):
on the band that I last did, soif I start on 10, because the
time before I ended on 10, I'llstart the next activation on 10.
And then if I move to 20, I'llleave it on 20.
But then I'll, when I look,when I pull it out, I know that
I'm starting 20.
You know what I mean.
So, like it's, it's sometimes,if you take that thing off, that

(01:07:31):
little screw thing, and you putit back on, if you don't put it
on the bike, what, bye, bye,it's gone.
Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'vegot a bunch of them.
But I'm just saying if you takeit off the coil sometimes it's
not and you put it on the coilyou don't get the same.
I just find that if you leaveit on there and you did an
activation, or if you did acouple, like within the week,
you're going to be gettingresident and getting a better

(01:07:54):
swr a lot easier than if youactually had to redo it.
So it's just like a time-savingthing for me, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
And it's all about timing, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
So I mean it's, you know, especially like when I'm
doing like the lunch break podo,right, If I'm working the rail
trail and I need to be in andout of there in an hour, I don't
have time to mess around withthe, with the antenna, you know,
and it's only for that antenna,just because I find the
vertical antenna does well forme, especially during the day.

(01:08:28):
It's kind of like a hack, butit's not really a hack.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
The fact that you're leaving the stubs on.
I've used it twice I think, inmy whole career so far and I
have not left those little studson.
You know, screw studs on thecoil.
So yeah, you're you'redefinitely one step.
They are a pain in the ass toget on and off oh yeah, sausage
fingers.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
So, and you know, and you can put multiple ones on,
it messes the SWR up.

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
So I just do one at a time.
Cool, all right.
Well, you know.
So with that, my number threeis kind of more of, we'll say, a
frivolous item.
But you know, all of us stilllike to have the capabilities.
I have a iPad with data enabledon enabled on it I was when I
first started poda.

(01:09:24):
I didn't, I was always using myhotspot.
I was always dependent on thatstupid cell phone not ringing
and when, you know, for whateverreason, you know I'd get a call
, the data connection wouldsever, and so I just basically
said, screw this and and boughta tablet with the, you know, the
data connection on it and it'simproved my logging um, and has
been great for the benefits ofbeing able to take my data and

(01:09:48):
get it back up to the cloudafter I'm done with activating.
Because you know it is one ofthose things when you get old
and you suffer from crs like me,you don't always remember when
you get home to do somethingwith your logs because you're
like, yeah, I got home, I'm justkind of, you know, basking in
the glory of me making so manycontacts that I didn't bother to

(01:10:09):
think that I should upload myfreaking log to.
You know, get the credit for itand then three or four days
later roll around the you know.
But the benefit to that is nowI'm able to you know, know
basically upload the logs to myshared cloud service and then
get home and then slurp them inand go from there.
So the data connection helps alot that's.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
It's funny, you, um.
You said that because this ismy number two well, then, you
can.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
I think there's a couple of newer hacks, though,
with the, you know, tablets youmentioned in terms of uploading,
so I won't let the cat out ofthe bag with that one.
Okay, cool.
So with that we are on tonumber two and one away from our
top hack here.
So, paul, what is your numbertwo, now that we sort of let the
cat out of the bag a little bit?

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
All right.
So yeah, number two is mycolored canvas bags.
I've got two different shapes,and so the rectangular looking
ones, and I've shown these in myvideos.
But the rectangular lookingones, those are for antennas and

(01:11:18):
building things.
Those are for antennas andbuilding things.
I've got a no-code charger.
I've got a PowerPole kit, myReliance NFED Halfwave antenna.
The whole kit is in that bag.
The green is the antenna, thered is PowerPole, the yellow is

(01:11:44):
charging for those.
Those bags, uh, for the biggerbags, uh, I've got a red one
which is all of my power stuff.
It's got, uh, you know, severaldifferent cords with power pole
connectors on each end.
Distribution block, uh, my wattmeter, uh, I also throw my
microphone in there, becausemicrophone kind of goes with all
the power stuff, um.
And then I've got the blue bagis all my computer stuff for

(01:12:07):
when I'm doing digital.
It's got the you know digi rigand all the assorted cables that
go along with that and so onand so forth.
Anyways, you know, differentantenna systems.
I have, uh, you know, differentbags for different things.
But 100% I love being able tograb my bags out of a bin and
know I'm grabbing the rightcolor.

(01:12:30):
So it's got what I need.
The only difference isdepending on the radio which.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
I've got one set for the 891 and I've got one set for
the 7300, so I just got toverify that the radio model
number is correct on the bag andI'm good, okay I got so many
questions, so so I think yousort of alluded to it, but you

(01:12:59):
you know how many bags do youusually bring when you go to
assemble your like let's go,just go play radio, kind of
thing for each he toes a trailerbehind his truck.
Oh, he's running off time to getthe assistant.
This is the current photo bagfor those that can see.

(01:13:22):
So that's the explorer forthose on our podcast.
Paul is lifting up his explorerbackpack no, that is not an
explorer backpack.
Okay, so that's the upgradedversion from the trashed
explorer backpack that you wantto get rid of yeah, the explorer
bag is going to be a giveawaywhen I schedule a live stream.

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
I'm going to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Someday.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
I swear I'm going to do it so, but that's a, it's a
military three-day bag is whatthey call it.
But so I've got a lot ofcontingencies and extra things
in there.
So, like, I've got myconnectors bag and my guying bag

(01:14:01):
and you know, obviously, thepower and antenna um bags I
brought, uh, I brought the tunerbag, the tuners, uh, orange.
That way, I know, doesn'tmatter which orange bag I grab,
one of them has a tuner in it.
Um, but yeah, so typically,like when I'm going to a park
that I don't know, I've neverbeen to before I always bring

(01:14:25):
more than I need.
Like yesterday, in that bagstill is uh, um, all of all of
the, the same stuff that I wouldbring for powering the 891 and
just doing single sideband onthe 891, my bluetooth keyboard
for logging, assorted chargingcables, you know.

(01:14:46):
So that way the tablet doesn'tdie and whatever you know.
But yeah, I mean I carry a lotmore stuff than I really should,
and yesterday I had to walkback to the truck because my
Tinkara mast fucking snapped inhalf.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Hold, that thought.
I want to talk about that oneeventually.
That was a nice politicalanswer.
You still didn't answer.
How many bags do you usuallytake with you?

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Number, please, six, okay, well, that's not terribly
that bad okay six and then, sixof the six, six of the colored,
six of the colored canvas bags.
Right, okay yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, we're not talking about
full like backpacks yeah, no,there's five five of the larger

(01:15:35):
ones and then one of therectangulars got it okay.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
And then my other question is is how religious are
you with this system?
Like I do you.
Have you violated it or, youknow, changed it up and then
said we need to, you know, applythis across all the bags, or
you know?
Have you just stuck with thesystem and it just worked?

Speaker 3 (01:15:55):
so, um, honestly, the system works and it works well
because if I know exactly what Ineed, I know that I can.
I can grab three bags, three ofthe canvas bags, and I can
throw them in whatever bag thatI'm hiking with that day or I'm
going to the park with that day,and those three bags are going

(01:16:16):
to get the job done.
And that's's the power bag, theantenna bag and and the logging
.
Like you know, with myBluetooth keyboard, that that,
that stuff.
Right, I can grab those threebags and I I can go and I can be
good.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Okay, so, so it sounds like you pretty much just
from iteration.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Only, you know, come to a set system that hasn't, you
know, failed you yet Right,Well, so like okay, Um well, all
right, no, well, I'll, I'llhold that thought.
I'll hold that thought becauseit rolls.

Speaker 1 (01:16:52):
It rolls into my number one, okay, well then, all
right, go ahead.
Okay, you need to set the stage, do it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
But I no.
No, We'll hold that because itrolls into my number one.
I'll continue the story after.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Okay, all right, cool , so we'll put a pin in that one
, as they say, and go from there.
So, todd, what is your numbertwo there for your?

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
ProtoHacks.
All right.
So, like you said, I startedoff with a non LTE or iPad, and
I actually traded it in andbought a LTE iPad just because
it just makes life a lot easier.
I used to try to do thehotspots.

(01:17:32):
It didn't really work too well,but what I do is I with the LTE
as soon as I'm done with thePOTUS, so I don't forget I um, I
upload it right away.
So if I have that, you can dothat on the iPad, though right.
Yep, so, um, yeah, so I do it.
Uh, yeah, I mean you justbasically, uh, you download, you

(01:17:54):
know you.
So from the logging softwareyou just put it into a file.
I have it.
Podalogs is a folder I have onmy iPad and I just upload the
ADIF what is that, what iscalled ADIF file, and then I go
to the pod app and I just pullit from that file and bring it

(01:18:15):
over there and it works reallywell.
It like uploads very quicklyand you can do it right after
you're done.
Um, so that's what I that's,that's what I've done.
But I mean again, is itsomething you need to have?
It just makes life a lot easier.
And it's also kind of cool,cause you know when you're doing
the, the portable, uh, what doyou call it?

(01:18:36):
The mobile loggers you can, um,you know, you can see the map
of where you're meeting andwhere you're kind of reaching
and stuff.
So I like to look at that liveand see what I'm doing and it,
um, it also, you know, pulls upall their information, you know.
So you can you know who you'retalking to and stuff.
So, but but you know simplicity.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
Yeah, so my thing wasn't so much of getting the lt
, but you know, going off whatyou said.
But my thing is is like beingable to download the logs right
at right after you're done.
Yeah, when, when I learned thatfrom you, that I was like dude,
that that's a thing to do like,and I, I, I suffer because it
stinks when I do like.
I have a polo on my iphone andmom, story short, I wish I could
actually upload directly fromyou know the podoapp on the
browser, but they don't allow iton smartphones, so it's like I
have to drag out my ipad.

(01:19:27):
But yeah, having it on the ipadto be able to go straight there
.
I can't wait till polo and allthe other stupid loggers finally
just get automatic upload builtin and it's a done deal.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
But yeah, like you just go boom, send the podo.
Yeah, I mean, I mean you.

Speaker 3 (01:19:40):
I mean, I just I just email it to myself yeah, yeah,
I mean yeah you could do I?

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
just?
I've just been doing it rightaway, like especially, because
then you know, if I'm, like youknow, down south for work and
I'm doing it like I'll forget,you know, I'll come on, and then
I'll have to go back and looklike oh, I didn't put that one
in, and I just like to get it in, and you know.
And then I like to see thestats and like where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
So see, I'm a first world problem person, so you
know, damn, I can't get my logsnow and the instant
gratification that I uploaded itand I'm already like come on,
get the game going here, allright, all right, well, cool on
that one.
So, yeah, definitely a goodhack there, for sure, if you can
upgrade it and do that.
But again, there's always manyways to be able to skin a cat,

(01:20:22):
as they say.
So don't feel like you have toupload your logs immediately,
but it's definitely a benefitfor sure, especially with a good
cell service.
All right, so with mine this haskind of been a topic that all
of us already have and we alluse.
But this is kind of two,because they they kind of

(01:20:43):
piggyback on one another.
If you got an 891 and all of ushere do, and we all love our
891s, you know that.
You know, if you the firstthing you buy, whatsoever with
the 891 is run out, go to amazon, wherever, and get yourself an
rj45 extension cable.
You know, plug that thing inthe radio and you've got
instantaneous mic hookup leftand right.

(01:21:04):
You know many hams early onwhen that finally kind of came
into the scene.
We're all doing it.
I know I've had severalquestions from people on my
channel and just in generalwalking by you know who may have
not known about it.
They've been like oh, that's awonderful idea, so do that to
your radio.
It it has been like oh, that'sa wonderful idea, so do that to

(01:21:28):
your radio.
It will save yourself in thelong haul and keep your mic from
getting beat up.
But the addendum to that hackis also go out and buy yourself
an extension splitter with twoports in it, because we all do,
you know two op uh activationsand you know you definitely need
to have that capability becauseI don't know about you, but
passing the mic and pa, paul andI did a video.
You know, doing Russell Abbottdoing the mic back and forth was
just like you just want to.
Yeah, yeah, you want tostrangle yourself because it's

(01:21:50):
like it's like seconds to alarge pileup that you're missing
out with.
You know having to go back andforth with a mic.
So, so having that capabilityis definitely a plus.
Now just keep in mind the caveatA lot of people don't know that
that those splitters are active.
Active meaning that if Paulkeys the mic, I don't have to
keep my PTT on the other mic.

(01:22:10):
They can hear my voice throughmy mic because the circuit
completes on both sides.
So just keep that in mind.
So if you've got a you know awise cracking you know person on
the other side, that's yoursecond activator.
That stuff's going to go rightover the top of you, on top of
you.
So, uh, you know, just keepthat in mind.
This is an active so wait aminute.

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
So if you, if I press the mic even if you're not
pressing your mic, they can hearwhat you're saying it opens up
the mic on my side.
Yep, oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Yeah, it's active because you and we both use that
a lot, like that double, ohyeah I know I I didn't dawn on
me until I looked at, like the,the wire pairing diagram.
I'm like, yeah, dude, that'sjust gonna complete the circuit
all the way through.
There's no doubt in my mind anda few other people actually
confirmed that for me, I think.
Uh, kb9 vbr did it on a, anepisode of hacks a while back

(01:22:52):
and and said that too as well.
I was like, oh then, yeah, thatconfirms it.
So, yeah, don't be a smart assas a second up there, that's all
I have to give is a tidbitthere, or yeah, I don't care, be
a smartass, it helps, alright.
So that's my number two there.
Alright.
So now we are at the top of theheap, top of the pile here.
What is your number one, paul,for rounding out our top five

(01:23:15):
hacks for POTA tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
alright.
So the number one thing that isby far the biggest lifesaver in
all of poda redundancies andusing my color used no, no, no,
but using my color-coded bags, Iknow that I've got redundancies
built in my gray bag is myconnector's bag.

(01:23:44):
I know that in my gray bag isall of my miscellaneous
connectors.
I will throw the gray bag inthe extras stuff that I take out
with me just to have it, stuffthat I take out with me just to
have it.
However, in the greenrectangular antenna bag, I know

(01:24:07):
that I've got a BNC to SO239connector or adapter.
Um, at least one.
Uh, I think I've got a, astraight and a 90 degree.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
Well, um, plus you've had.
You've had more than that.
I have been the beneficiary ofhey Paul.
Do you happen to have?
Yeah, I've got a couple, noproblem.

Speaker 3 (01:24:27):
Well, that's so.
No, that day I went into thebin and I grabbed the connector
bag because you don't, you don'ttake from your bags, right?
So you don't take from yourbags.
I would never take from myantenna bag.
My antenna bag has severaladapters in it.
If I don't bring my guying bag,but I happen to run into a

(01:24:52):
situation where I need to guysomething, I've at least got two
aluminum tent stakes and 550cord in my antenna back, if I
can get by.
It's a system of redundanciesso I can bring out the whole kit
and caboodle and a big tote andleave it in my truck and then

(01:25:16):
have just what I need, or what Ithink I'll need, in my backpack
and then I can hike in.
And then, god forbid, youforget something or you need to
go back to the truck forsomething.
I mean, at least you're notgoing home, you know you're,
you're, you're going back to thetruck.

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
So now I have to ask are your redundancy systems
include coax or no?

Speaker 3 (01:25:45):
Yes, how much?
Absolutely All right.
Have to ask are your redundancysystems include coax or no?
Yes, how much?
Absolutely all right.
So in the antenna bag there's a15 foot length of um rg316 with
bncs on both ends and ninetimes out of ten, that's all I
need.
That's and that's that's.
It's a nice short length.
It saves me from bringing a bigthing of coax.
However, it's not that hard tostrap a 50-foot roll of RG8.

(01:26:12):
It's not Podaflex, becausethat's Messy and Pelloni.
It's the ABR brand.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Yeah, ABR.

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
Poda, because that's Messier and Pelloni, it's the
ABR brand, yeah, abr, and so Ijust have that Velcro strapped
on the outside of my bag andit's there if I need it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:36):
But I shouldn't need it because the RG316 in the
antenna bag should cover it.
Oh man.
Well, all I have to say to thatis radio shack, all right.
Well, that was uh, impressive.
I, you know I aspire to be you,my friend, like my redundancies
are, you know, we'll sayshameful, but you know I'm

(01:26:58):
working towards getting to thatlevel, I think, and you know I
have to thank you for, you know,nudging me along as I, because
you've been all you guys havebeen firsthand, you know,
experienced of me forgettingsomething, antenna or whatever,
or heard my horror story.
So, yeah, I applaud you forhaving some of those systems and
just trying to get better withit.

(01:27:18):
So it's good, good stuff there,cool, all there, cool, all
right, any any add to that toddyou want to throw in there?
That, you know, maybe, uh, youknow, moves the needle for you
for him or for yeah,redundancies in general for you,
not well?

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
yeah, I mean we all aspire to be paul because he is
the most prepared person I'veever met and I like his roles.
I mean, okay, he's verysuccessful at being prepared, so
whatever he does, we shouldprobably all just follow suit.

Speaker 1 (01:27:49):
So follow him.
Yeah, just create.
Just create the paperwork, todd, paul, we'll just follow you.
Whatever it is all right, cool,okay.
Well with that then, todd, whatdo you got for your number one?
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
so this is my number one hack is set up your, your
logs before you go out, meaninggo on your on your mobile logger
and if you're going to be doingum, you know three parks that
day, make three logs, get themall set up, get the park numbers

(01:28:23):
in there, get everything set upand then that way all you got
to do is put on the frequency ofwhere you're at and you're good
to go um.
I've had times.
I think you know one time withyou, eric is uh, you must have
done that, or you were moreprepared and you started
activating and I didn't have alog set.
I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, slowdown, slow down.

(01:28:44):
So now you know, if I know I'mgoing out, you know right before
.
I mean, it doesn't take long,but it can't make a difference.
I mean, if you think about it,when we did um, when we did the
uh, the rove, when we, I think Iput in like 10, we needed 10 or
15 logs of like all the parksthat we possibly were going to
do, and then, yeah, so it was alot easier than trying to sit

(01:29:07):
there and go through and set itall up.
So that's something I do prettymuch every time, unless it's
like a sporadic one where I justshow up because, oh, I just
drove by a park and I've gotsome time.
But if I'm preparing, if I'mplanning to do a park, I'll have
that set up before I leave.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Very, cool, all right .
Well, that's a good tip there,for sure I know, although you
know the benefits to Polo andothers get really good
logging-wise is that they'reobviously auto-naming logs now
at this point, so you don't evenhave to put PubGus in it and it
will automatically label it foryou.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
Yeah, it's gotten a lot.
Yeah, like the Polo has gotten.
I mean, it's such an awesomeapp but it's gotten a lot easier
so you don't need to worryabout it as much.
But I don't know, maybe it'sjust my habit.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
Well, I'll tell you the time that Todd joined me out
of Russell Abbott, it wouldhave.
It would have done me a lot ofgood had I set up my log when I
had cell service.

Speaker 1 (01:30:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30:07):
Cause you were behind .
I didn't just send it to him.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:30:11):
That's a good, good point there.
Yep, check, check your softwarebefore you leave the house when
you have good internet.

Speaker 3 (01:30:17):
Yeah, cause I was like, uh, uh, todd, can you just
send me your log?

Speaker 1 (01:30:23):
I'll just, I'll just change the call sign this is all
good, tuck my tail all right.
Well, with that, then.
Good on that one, I have onefor my top.
It's sort of alluded to.
Paul did his number five, but II'm saying improving upon the
system.
I'm a comfort guy.
I like to be comfortable whenI'm doing any activity, whatever

(01:30:45):
it is.
So, whether it's hiking orfield day or whatever, I stress
comfort.
Like you know, it's number onein my book, no matter what,
because if you're not happy, youknow sitting or you know
whatever that you're just goingto hate your, you know your
activation.
It's just going to be one ofthose things that you just, you
know, you're just not going tolike.
So I started like Paul uh, youknow, for a long time I used to

(01:31:06):
keep beach chairs and like otherstuff, like folding chairs, in
back of my truck and they alwaysget banged around.
And I had a small littlefolding table that, uh, you know
, it was a metal like kind offolded up but really fold up
into like something portablethat I used to kept in back of
the truck and it used to alwaysget banged up and moved around
and that's what I use for mostof my activations and it worked
fine.
But I'd be like Paul, I'd havea metal table under my arm, I'd

(01:31:27):
have my chair wrapped around mybag, I'd have my poda bag on my
back, and if I didn, enough isenough.
So I started doing someresearch and started looking

(01:31:48):
into some products from Helinoxand everybody knows Helinox.
They have a great portablechairs, tables, I mean
everything you can kind of thinkunder the sun and so I kind of
felt them out a little bit, rana couple of their chairs,
because I was looking for theportability, but I also wanted
some strength in it becausethese things are going to get

(01:32:09):
beat up and so they kind ofbubbled up to the top both on
people that have used them I'veseen them in the field, use, kb1
, icl, john uses them as welland so I bought the Helinox
table and I also bought thechair.
And in my truck, on one of mysaddle bags that I have on the
side of the bed, I've got twolittle hooks and those things in

(01:32:31):
the bags because they pack downto literally just probably
about four inches wider, longerthan paul's, like you know,
colored bags in terms of thesize, in terms of how they pack
down.
So I'm like all for it.
So basically, I can hang themoff the smallest saddle bags.
They stay up and off the bottomof the bed so they don't get
wet or damaged, and I can setall of that up in literally

(01:32:52):
probably five minutes and thechairs are super comfortable.
Um, the table is super strong.
Um, I've, you know, decked allthe table out with all, yeah,
literally about another fourmore inches off the side of
Paul's bag.
As you see in for those that areon the podcast you'll have to
watch the video, but, yeah, theHelinox chairs if you've used
them you sat in them they'revery comfortable in terms of

(01:33:15):
activations and stuff and theypack down super light and that's
kind of what I'm thinking, youknow, and that's kind of what
I'm thinking you know, andthat's what's replaced exactly
what I have, uh, long term.
So you know, the nice part aboutthe helix table is it all folds
up in a small little bag but Ican put all of my stickers on
the top of it and the stickersdon't get ruined, so it's like I
get to customize it still.
So it looks a little bit, youknow, like a photo table, but uh
, all good stuff.

(01:33:35):
And you know, I'm definitelygonna start start using that
more in the spring, summer andyou know, you know whatever's
left until winter kind of setsin here.
But yeah, those are the two bigthings I bought recently and I
love them and you know they havesaved a lot of space and weight
and make activations much, mucheasier, for sure, going forward
well, I'll tell you, I, uh, Iabsolutely love my pod rockers,

(01:34:01):
right yeah, those arecomfortable they're.

Speaker 3 (01:34:03):
They're very comfortable, but they're big and
they're heavy and you know,like I'm, I'm, I want to do more
summits and I I've been lookingat the uh, the helinox, and so
I think it might end up in myChristmas wishlist and, uh, the
other.
The other thing too is a mastis uh, I broke mine.

Speaker 1 (01:34:28):
Uh, did you suffer the uh last uh two uh sections
snap.

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
Yeah, so uh, I, I, I don't know for for those that
aren't familiar, but I use aTenkara seven meter rod as my
mast and I had broken the toptwo elements before and I had
replaced them, but this timearound I broke the top five

(01:34:54):
elements.

Speaker 1 (01:34:56):
Oh oh wow, you really abused that one.
Yeah Well, you know.
If you want to see what theTenkara looks like Mike actually
did.
Oh wow, you really abused thatone.
Yeah Well, you know.
If you want to see what theTenkara looks like Mike actually
did.

Speaker 3 (01:35:08):
Mike N2MAK did a review on his Mast video.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
So check that out and you'll see the Tenkara on that
one.
He had one, but he snapped hislast element off, so wow you
really sent it home.

Speaker 3 (01:35:19):
I had it guide and I had the base firmly planted in
the beach sand and I was runningthe wire through the carabiner
at the top and I was justlightly like pulling it through
to make an inverted V.
And yeah, I just, I don't knowit must have hung on the
carabiner just slightly and done.

Speaker 1 (01:35:40):
At that point you're like where do I put?

Speaker 3 (01:35:45):
I don't have a tree to put this up in Well and
that's where thank youredundancies, because I had
grabbed my uh my antenna bagright, which my my now, right
now.
So my big green militaryantenna bag is almost four feet
long and it's a.
It's a roll up uh oil canvasbut it's a, it's an actual

(01:36:05):
military antenna bag and I keepthe uh the Wolfer recoil
complete setup in that and theuh M pass 2.0 complete setup.
So I had thrown that in thetruck.
So I went back to the truck andwhat I did was I used the uh
the m pass uh ground spike anduh loading coil with the uh the

(01:36:28):
17 foot whip and then and then Iran, I ran my radial into the
ocean there you go, redundancyyeah, all right todd so with
your uh, you know uh number one,I think right, yep, yeah, do
you already give your?

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
number.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
Yeah, I just did my brain, so fun.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
Okay, all right well, I wanted to go back on these.
You were the last one yeah, Iwas right all right, cool.
Okay, I want to go back tothese guys healing next stuff.
So these, these aren't cheap,these chairs, right no, they are
not cheap so, but I'm lookingat it online and I mean they
look well made.
I mean, are these, are thesewell-made chairs like?

(01:37:08):
Are they gonna last a while, orare they?

Speaker 3 (01:37:13):
I have yet to see a bad review.
And, uh, you know, like erichad said, kb1 icl.
John john b, john Bach, he'sgot it, he brought it to, I
believe, winterfield Day.

Speaker 2 (01:37:25):
He did.

Speaker 3 (01:37:27):
Yeah, dude, I sat on it.
It's actually comfortable andlike it's not bad.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
So, like there's so many different ones, like is it
just like like the chair, zerohigh back, is that the chair
that that you're probably used?
Like that's looks like the.
I mean, there's either that oneor the or the.

(01:37:58):
Like the square one is 170, thetable one is 140 and the table
oh, and then the cafe table is249.
Holy crap, 250.
That's some expensive stuff itis yeah like.

(01:38:22):
I don't, I've never, I've neverseen one like, so I can't say.
I mean, I I'm assuming it's notjust the name and it's like pie
, I think it's.
It's well, how bad, wellquality stuff is it?
Is it light, like lighter it'svery light lighter than what,
super lighter than like ourrocker chairs that we got with
the oh way way like I meanliterally we're talking

(01:38:45):
fractions ounces yeah, and it'suh, and they sell it at rei,
right, you can?

Speaker 1 (01:38:52):
do?
Uh, no, they don't.
Sadly, I was the only place Igot mine off amazon.
I got a couple of good deals.
So black friday's coming up, soI would say, check black friday
deals on those yeah, I'm at therei shop and it says they sell
them they don't have them instore, at least in our
neighborhood oh yeah, the oneover in bedford doesn't have it,
but yeah, I um I went up to uhtrading post up in maine to

(01:39:14):
check out all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
They've got one.
They've got the chair zero.
What, which one do you have?

Speaker 1 (01:39:20):
I have the savannah, which is the larger one with the
higher back the savannah.

Speaker 2 (01:39:25):
Well, that one said what table do you have?

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
I have the larger table, so that's the hard top
large, yeah hard top large, andthat's that.
That's big enough to do your umthat's I can up my laptop, the
FTA doing digital, I can do myradio, the battery, everything,
and still have enough space thatI don't Nothing's like where my

(01:39:50):
old table.
I had to squeeze everything intight to make everything work.
That table is nice and big andI can spread out very easily.

Speaker 2 (01:39:59):
I mean they even sell a bench.
I'm looking on the website.
I saw that, like the healing onexpense, that's pretty sweet
and they sell.

Speaker 1 (01:40:05):
They've got a cut.
They got a cover to theSavannah too.
So if you want to like add likea plush foam, so if you're like
sitting in it longer, you canjust put a cover over, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:40:16):
I don't see the Savannah one.
Hold on.
They sell cots too.
That's pretty sweet.

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
They have a lot of really, really nice stuff.
The max convertible is 480bucks.

Speaker 2 (01:40:30):
That thing better be nicer than my bed.

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
I think the prices are a little high, but I mean,
you get what you pay for.

Speaker 1 (01:40:39):
sometimes so chair zero high Back is what it is
it's called the I got it inblack, that's like $1.79.

Speaker 2 (01:40:46):
The Chair, oh yeah, the Chair Zero, high Back.
Yeah, that's the one I'm seeing.

Speaker 1 (01:40:51):
Yeah, even the stool.
They have a small littlefolding up stool that packs away
.
That is pretty slick too aswell.

Speaker 2 (01:41:06):
That would be perfect for poda like that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
I was thinking like the stool that packs down to a
small little bug.
Yeah, it's called the speedstool, speed stool.
I see a cafe table yep up onhelen arc's website all right
under there.

Speaker 2 (01:41:16):
Light, ultra lightweight.
I'm gonna check out this.
This looks like a pretty coolstuff it is.
I gotta have to check yours outbecause I want to see how, uh,
how compact it goes and howlight and comfortable it is,
because I'm like yeah, actuallyin my video I did for my truck
when I did the full walk around.

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
I showed the those in the setup.

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
So yeah, check that out or I can show you sometime
well, I mean like next time wedo a polo, if we ever do one
again, yeah we will, ohguaranteed, I gotta get that fix
again, yeah but even even whenthere's snow on the ground, it's
still poda time yeah, I'm inthe truck.
Sorry, when that happens, that'swhere I drum you know, I'm,
yeah, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm kind ofexcited for winter field day.

(01:41:55):
So, since I missed uh regularfield day, I think I'm going to
Paul talk to you.
I think we're going to do itlike the whole night, like the
whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:42:05):
Well, so here's a little tickler One.
We're doing it up at Ralph's.
So for those that may not knowthat, our current president in
the club.
He lives 1,300 ASL in a nice,you know, 80 acre, 30 acre
property that he has on top ofpretty much a mountain.
So we'll have all of the heightto our advantage.

(01:42:27):
Marvin just told me, m0met, theham radio guy, he's actually
bringing his.
If the snow doesn't show andit's just grass and dirt, he's
bringing his trailer.
He'll have his fullcommunications trailer tower and
everything he's doing.
He's doing winter field day withus yeah, I guess he said his

(01:42:47):
club isn't going to be doing, um, you know, field day, winter
field day.
And so he's like, yeah, I'mjust going to come up that way.
And he's like, if it snows I'mnot bringing the trailer, but
I'm coming up anyway.
So between paul with his setup,you know I'm gonna need a
shelter or something.
Yeah well, you probably want toget one, one of those, uh, ice
hut.
So there's not the one I bought.

(01:43:08):
Please don't buy that one.
That was a bad mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
I'll reach I'll reach out to paul and get his.
Uh, yeah, exactly, talk to him.
And the heater that littleheater too, that little propane,
uh, I got one of those.
Yeah, those things are, I mean,all I remember.
Last year I walked into paul'sthat little heater too, that
little propane box heater, thosethings are All I remember.
Last year I walked into Paul'slittle igloo thing.
He was in shorts.
It was like 80 degrees in there.
The dog was sweating.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
That's how hot it was .

Speaker 2 (01:43:32):
Meanwhile I'm out there, my toes are frozen and
everyone else is freezing.
Paul's sitting there like.

Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Paul knows how to do it.
We'll have to have a specificwinter episode when we get
closer to field day and some ofthe prep we'll do and we'll talk
about that.
Be fun, cool, all right,awesome, all right, cool, well,
let's uh, you know all those aresome great tips, you know, and
great hacks, you know.
Hopefully, they, you know, youlearn something yourself a
little bit.
Uh, you know, maybe a new onethat you haven't done in your
own setups.

(01:43:59):
But, as always, you know, hey,let's keep this conversation
going.
We're gonna have this postedover in our discord, uh, under
our shows episode.
So when this goes, uh, live,you know, you can head over
there to our discord site.
Um, and, you know, participate,let us know what's going on uh,
with your, uh, you know, podahacks.
Do you have a couple that wemight have missed on or that we

(01:44:19):
don't want and share?
You know, feel free to sharewith that.
We're always interested inlearning new stuff ourselves.

Speaker 2 (01:44:24):
Can I just do an extra one?
Just a good idea for anyonedoing poda yeah, throw one in.
I think what I do is I have a Imade a printout, but you can
even buy them now pamphlets thattalk about what poda is and how
to get on the site.
I think it's good to have astack of those, um, just to when
people come up because we'veall been there and people say,

(01:44:44):
hey, what are you doing?
I think it's just good for hamradio and it's good for poda.
You know, the more people youget involved and, uh, if they
have something they can put intheir hand and they can look it
up, you know they throw itaround.
They might look it up and geton their phone and go to the
website and see what it's allabout.
So I like to have those in mybag, just as when people come

(01:45:04):
around, so they know what we'redoing.

Speaker 1 (01:45:07):
Yeah, totally Good tip there, and that's something
we should probably do anotherepisode on, because I know
there's a lot of good stuff thatwe kind of help people build
their own little POTA brochuresif they don't use the one that's
up on POTA's website orwhatever.
With that again, carry theconversation over at the Discord
.
We'd love to have you guysthere.
If you don't know how to get toour Discord, you can always

(01:45:28):
head over to livefreeandhamcomand a link is down at the bottom
.
It's always in our show notestoo as well.
There's no reason why you justcan't click it and become part
of discord and hang out with us.
We we've got people hopping inall the time, so it's great to
see new faces, and we're goingto have to make a little segment
here and as new people pop on,because I know we've had a
couple of those that have joinedrecently and and I don't have

(01:45:50):
it up right now so I can't tellyou who it is.
But yeah, we thank you guys forjoining in and hanging out,
having some fun.
So with that, let's get intohow you can get ahold of us as
we wrap the show up.
You can always head over toscribe our YouTube channel catch
all the awesome content,including our videos here that
are live streamed, and if you're, you know, so inclined, you can

(01:46:13):
participate in our live streams.
Those are once a month, asalways, and the only way you can
get notified by those is tocheck out either our discord or
make sure you're subscribed andyou get that notification bell
set.
It'll alert you when we go liveand, as always, you can leave
us a review or, you know, tellus, you know what's going on.

(01:46:33):
If you need some help, you wantto share a great story, or you
just want to say hello, you knowyou can always use our SMS link
.
It's located in all of our shownotes.
Or you just want to say hello,you know you can always use our
SMS link.
It's located in all of our shownotes or you can leave us a
voicemail at 978-233-1142.
Tell us about your day, tell usabout anything you know, share
it with us.
We'd love to hear it and youknow, as we say, we have

(01:46:56):
volunteers ready and waiting inthe background.
Either way, all right, and so,with that, you know, if you want
to be on the end and whywouldn't you, you know you can
always head over to our Patreonpage and subscribe there,
because we are always doing somegreat things there and you can
always find the latestinformation before the rest of

(01:47:18):
the world knows about what'sgoing on with the free and ham
Um.
And and don't forget you know,if you haven't already and you
are interested we always haveour whiskey glasses.
Can't forget about these.
Your screen is killing it.
Um, these are run for a limitedtime.
There you go, paul shown itright there on his screen.
These are limited time on ourwebsite.

(01:47:40):
They're gone.
They're gone.
These are uniquely uh brandedlive free and ham podcast grams
for those whiskey drinkers andbourbon drinkers.
Um, and if you want to put yourwater in it or go ahead, it's
totally fine too.
We won't, we won't slander youhere.
This is the circle of, but getyour live free and ham uh drams

(01:48:00):
there, because they are alimited run, as always.
And if you want to learn moreabout us and what's going on
with the show, you can alwayshead over to live free and
hamcom uh and check out all ofour latest swag, find all of our
host information and any of thecontact info there.
And, as always, thanks againfor listening.

All Episodes

Top Five POTA Hacks - Elevate your POTA Experience

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Are You A Charlotte?

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Top Five POTA Hacks - Elevate your POTA Experience