June 19, 2025 • 31 mins
Talked with Bert Moreschi, President, ARRL Instructor and Herb Price, Board Director, for Jupiter Tequesta Repeater Group (JTRG). "Jupiter-Tequesta Repeater Group is a volunteer organization of local Amateur Radio Operators (affectionately referred to as "Hams"), who play a critical role in maintaining emergency communications, between Local Red Cross and County Emergency Services and other government agencies and services, before, druing and after Disaster events. Yearly, local JTRG volunteers provdie training and practice exercises with the goal of being totally prepared for emergency operations." They are participating in the nationwide, Annual American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day. It's happening at Carlin Park Civic Center in Jupiter on June 28th and June 29th. Listeners are invited to come out and enjoy the day, try making a contact using the "GOTA" Get on the Air" station, and see how the JTRG practices simulated emergency conditions. For more info, to sign up for class, to become a volunteer or sponsor, listeners can go to www.jtrg.org or reach out to Bert at aug77@att.net or call 561-714-6673.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ihearts Communities Presents Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective, which dead Now.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good morning, welcome to Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective. I'm
your host, dev Now, thanks for spending your weekend with me.
All kinds of great things going on. If you haven't been,
definitely check this one out. They do this pretty much
every year now. It's the City of Fort Pierce and
it's an animal adoption center participation thing. They're working in
conjunction with Petco. That's a pet Cot Love Florida megapet
(00:28):
Adoption event. It's going to be happening June twenty seventh
through the twenty ninth. There's like over thirty seven thousand
cats and dogs that need to find homes. For more information,
you can go to the pet Adoption places also at
the Havert l Fen Center and that's from ten to
four those days, or the Fort Pierce Animal Adoption Center
(00:48):
from eleven to four. From more information, reach out to
Caitlin and she'll give you the details seven seven to two,
seven four to two, nine eight three five. So if
you're looking for a furry friend, they got you covered there.
So I like it. All kinds of things happening with
Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Divisions the Urn folks. So
there's an evening under the stars coming up. I love
(01:10):
these Wenesay do allt different kinds of things. This is
the Astronomy one. It is Wednesday, June twenty fifth. It
starts at seven pm and it's going to be in
the Pine Glades Natural Area in Jupiter. So come out
and join the County biologists and the Astronomical Society in
the Palm Beaches and they'll share the telescopes and show
you what they're seeing and why it's important and just
(01:30):
a fun night there. And then on Thursday, June twenty six,
eight am, bright and early the Cypress Creek Natural Area
in Jupiter. They're looking for folks to help them restore
that area by removing the non native invasive weed rattlebox.
So those a couple of the cool things. I love it.
Morning paddle on the Lasahachi Slew Blue Way and that's
(01:51):
going to be Thursday June twenty sixth at nine am.
Then they have an off road bike ride that was
July tenth at eight thirty am. You can simply go
to PBC r M for more details and all those things,
and to sign up and they'll it'll link you through
to the event right to sign up. Our reminder, Mounts
Botanical has lots of wonderful things happening throughout the summer.
(02:13):
There's treasure trucks, scavenger hunt, the giant green maize, their
beautiful butterfly garden, animal statuary, families, all kinds of fun things,
and they're offering free admission throughout the summer for kids.
You buy an adult ticket, the kids get in free
and that's it Mounts Botanical Simply go to Mounts dot
org for more details on that and they're happy to
fill you in. Oh a reminder, summer hours are happening
(02:36):
for the indoor pickleball at West Boyton Gate at the
West Boyton Westgate and West Jupiter Recreation Centers so you
can play inside and the air conditioning and it's going
on now through August third. For more details go to
Pbcparks dot com and they have all the times that
the different centers are open, so you can check that out.
(02:56):
And of course also in Saint Lucy's got Saint Lucy
County Hikes, which I love these all over the place,
so coming up on Saturday, June twenty eighth, from nine
am to eleven am. It's called Mammals in Our Midst
Hike and that's happening at the Sheraton's Scrub Preserve and
it's like raccoons and possums or opossums how everyone say.
It all fun so fun things there and they've lots
(03:19):
of different hikes listed there. Simply go to SLC hikes
dot org and they have listed in the times and
like the age groups that it's good for, because some
are better for the older folks and some are like
older kids, and some are better for the wei ones.
They also are offering parks in Pompeache County. More Commy
Park in del Rey offers functional fitness classes eight thirty
(03:40):
am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I know they have
classes in the Belclade Center and then South Winds Golf
Course renovation notice so it's undergoing a comprehensive renovation. So
it's going to definitely impact the playing conditions, but it
will improve them in the long run. So please be
paid and reach out if you want to schedule a
(04:01):
forsom for there, and they'll give you all the details.
Of what's happening when, Oh, speaking more fun, if you
haven't been to Daggerwing Nature's Center, they're doing an orienteering
fun class and that's going to be Wednesday, June twenty fifth,
ten am. And this one's good for ages eight and up.
It's ten dollars per participant, and you do need to
make a reservation for that one. They have enough naturalists
on hand to help with the class. And of course
(04:25):
we're celebrating Pride all month long, and the Historical Society
Palm Beach County has some nice exhibitions going on now
through the thirtieth Ain't too proud the Life and Times
are the Temptations happening at the Kravis Center through June
twenty ninth, Rumors playing at the Fau Theater Lab through
June twenty eighth, And of course Women of You Motto
(04:45):
happening at the more Common Museum in Japanese Gardens through
August twenty fourth. And of course we talked to our
friend Elizabeth a few weeks ago. Palm Beach Shakespeare Festivals
happening again. It's going to be at Carlon Park and
this is July tenth through thirteenth, and then July seventeenth
through the twentieth and this summer they're doing the presentation
of The Winter's Tale, so it's gonna be a lot
(05:07):
of fun. Freed mission. There's a five dollars suggested donation
if you can, but you can bring your snacks, your food,
your blanky, whatever you know, lawn chair, or you can
buy the food there if you'd rather not carry everything
with you. And if you follow them on Facebook and
Pbshakespeare dot org, she does live weather updates on the
nights at the event because they're like rain or shine.
(05:29):
And of course the North Museum has got lots of
cool things happening on The North Museum has a lot
of fun things happening as well, and they are doing
a free admission for Palm Beach County residents every Saturday
through the summer through the end of August, and then
if you live in Palm Beach County, so I say,
if you live in West Palm Beach, Saturday mission is
always free as well. And something Go to Norton dot
(05:50):
org and you can get a list of all the
different programs and exhibitions they have happening. And don't forget
the first Friday Art after Dark is always the Jazz one,
so if you're a jazz fan, you want to check
out gets their tickets and go see that one. I've
been getting tickets. Lots of cool things happening at the Cravis,
like I said on the Ain't Too Proud, and then
coming up next year, their big Cravis on Broadway series
(06:11):
includes kimberle Okimbo whichwas the night before and that was
going to be like a cirk to solet one, so
that's going to be really cool, The Choir of Man
Some Like It, Hot MJ the musical A Beautiful Noise,
which is the Neil Diamond one. So definitely go to
Cravis dot org and get more information there. And if
you're interested in being a volunteer, now is a good
time to sign up because they have time to train
(06:32):
you over the summer and now I want to get
Speaking of getting more information and becoming a volunteer and
doing all the fun things, I want to welcome my
guests for today, I have Bert Maureshi and Herb Price
from the Jupiter to questa repeater group.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Good morning guys, Good morning deb from Morning Dead.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Good morning. So Herb, you are the board director for
the j t RG.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Correct, yes to quest a repeater group.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And you're a Ham newby, you've only been doing it
for thirty two years.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Right yeah, hard you know, and you start thinking about
the time it went back and went, wow, I've been
doing this for a long time.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So yeah, time flies.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's cool when you're having fun.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I like it. Yeah, it is all right.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So Bert, you're the president and an instructors like if
I want to become a Ham radio operator, I'm becoming
you teach the class, right.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Oh, absolutely, love to have you get your Ham radio
license to think that's great on here.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
She would sound really great on the reputer.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So anyway, so you've been like, you're not quite as
much of a newbie as herb. You've been doing for.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Thirty five years, right yeah, correct, you part of this
quarter century club.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's a cool club to be part of.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So for listeners who might be new to the area
or just haven't heard it in general, what is a
Ham radio operator?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What is Ham radio in general? For folks like a
little bit.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Of history, Well, ham radio is another name for amateur radio,
and of course the Ham got the name because of
the amateur radio operators who would love to get on
the microphone and kind of ham it up. So they
got a nickname. You know, my name a Ham, you know.
And but this, the Ham radio has been going on
for such a long time here now started out with
(08:09):
the Morse code, Marconi with the spark gap, and just
anybody can become a Ham radio operator if they if
they put their mind to a little bit. The exam
is not that hard. It takes a little bit of
studying and away you go, get yourself for radio and
get on the air and talk to a lot of
people around the world and other people that are in
(08:29):
your area, help out during emergencies or disasters. It's it's
a great hobby.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh absolutely. And I always think of you guys about
this time of year because as we're now in hurricane season. Yes,
obviously many years ago we had the three hurricanes in
a row and we without power for weeks and people's
cell phones went down. Oh yeah, does hand radio still work,
didn't they?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Ham radio still does work. And I think that's a
lot of people don't realize. You know, our cellular network
is you know, heavy technology infrastructure out there right now,
and I know Bert's seeing it too. There's a service
out there showing little handhelds and they tell you can
have communication doing emergencies. Well they're basically cell phones. They're
talking over to cellular so you start losing the cellar site.
(09:15):
Then those are no good. Amateur radio works all the time.
We have different modes and stuff. And then something Burt
brought up really quickly was a CW. You know, we
don't or you don't have to test on CW anymore.
The Morse code has been eliminated out of getting your licenses,
and I think that held up a lot of people
did not want to.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Study Morse code. Yeah, and devs raising her hand back there.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
But now it's a lot easier you get enter in
as a technician. Bert does some really great work on
the classes there. There's books that you can read and
know and Burt goes over those and that's an injury level.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's a technician class.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And with let's see about thing radio is I think
probably thirty five dollars handheld, you can get on the
repeaters and talk to a lot of people and have
communit and that's one of the things during a hurricane,
the repeaters normally the amateur radio repeaters all stay up
versus sailor.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, they do go down sometimes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh that's true. I like that. So you actually have
a lot of people in your class birth that are
first responders, fire rescue, police officers.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
We have people from all walks of life and all ages.
It doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter, you know,
what type of job that you have. Anybody can become
a Ham radio operator. We've got we got folks that
are doctors and firefighters and sheriff's officers. We got people
that from all walks of life, different trades, engineers and
(10:38):
stuff like that. You know, they just they enjoy the
hobby of talking with other people. And you did mention
about the about the infrastructure going down, and that did
happen during the first two hurricanes that we got Jean Francis,
where the cell sites went down, communications went down. All
we had was amateur radio until the infrastructure got back
up again. So we were in communications with the Palm
(11:01):
Beach Fire and Rescue because they had some Ham radio
operators as well, so that way we were able to
relay information to them.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And I know here I heart. We had a couple
engineers that were radio and They're like, we got you covered.
And then like a couple of days later, I came
into we're able to get into the office, and I
have a I had Verizon at the time, and my
phone was still working. I had one like one hundred
people in the building. There was two phones that were working.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Mine was one of them.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Give me your phone, your phone.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, I mean, well, you know, the National Hurricane Center
in Miami has an amateur radio station down there that
they communicate when hurricanes going on, because I know that
is a reliable source when all the other.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Stuff goes down.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I mean, you know, people think, well, there's satellite and
stuff like that, but you may not want to be
standing outside with you know, ninety mile an hour wind
trying to get a satellite connection for your sat phone there.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So amateur radio really.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Covers a lot of different areas and the like Bert
was saying, all walks of life are in amateur radio.
And also, you know, the thing we like to bring
into and bird stunn it too, is like get the
younger generation to come in and get away from the
cell phone stuff. So much amateur radio plays an important
part and there's parts of America that there is no
cell phone coverage whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh wow, So then Ham Radio would be helpful.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Yeah, yeah, it would be.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
One of the things you do every day is to
do what they call the field day.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yes, yes, it's a.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Two day period. This year, it's going to be June
twenty eight through the twenty ninth. Where's it happening this year?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
This year we're going to be at the Carland Park
Civic Center, just like we've been for the last several years.
It's a great place and it's a good opportunity for
the general public to pass through and actually see how
the radios are set up, watch how we communicate, and
if they're interested and they want to make a contact,
they're able to do that because we'll have licensed to
(12:50):
amateur radio operators there to help them get on the
air and to make that contact.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So your goota, your goda.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Goda, Yeah, gotta get on the air.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I like that it works. Hey, it likes like when
the letters makes sense. So for folks coming out, like
you said, there's no real age limit on Ham Radio,
So could like a fifteen year old get a license.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
We've had five year olds get a license.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So oh yeah, so that's.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Cool, and I know like in the past we've talked.
You can talk to anybody anywhere in the world, right,
you just have to make the link correct. So are
there different techniques to get a further reach.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
A lot of times you have to be in the
time of the year or a period of time. Right now,
we're in a sunspot cycle number twenty five, and during
that time we have good good propagation. In other words,
the radio rate waves will travel a lot farther than
they would otherwise, so now you can make long distance
contacts Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So how long will that sun cycle last?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
A couple of months, usually a few years, Oh, a
few years?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Oh okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think we're in the mid close to the mid
portion mark of that sun cycle. But it lasts usually
four or five years ago.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And then science is fun. I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And you know, that's a good thing about the younger
kids getting in an amateur adio because that becomes your
future technology people, scientific people, whether the male or female.
Actually the girls do much better in the mathematics and
stuff like that, so.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
It's good to see there.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
And there's a lot of we call them yl's young
ladies in the amateur radio field, and they have done
fantastic work in developing types of antennas and also improvement
on types of HF or high frequency rigs, and that's
what we use for talking around the world. The handheld
like I got here is for local talking on repeaters
and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And it's like a size slightly smaller than a cell phone,
but a little bit thicker, just a little thicker because
of bat walkie talkie.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's it. It's a walkie talkie basically. So so those
are some of the things we look at. And I
tell you, the h IF has been very good. I
like Blert Bert was saying, talking to Australia, talk over
towards Japan or go back over towards you know, the
European side and Great Britain. So yeah, it's some good communication.
Even Canada we talked today. We get them a lot too.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So HF is high frequency, yes, So obviously for folks
like back up a little bits of radio waves. Yes,
So you have the AM waves and FM waves and
you're using a high frequency option.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
That's correct. There's also there's also a lot of the
local repeaters around as well, and the repeater. What you
do is if you can talk into a repeater, maybe
using a handheld then probably maybe one or a couple
of watts or whatever you can, you can bring up
the repeater. Now, the repeater itself, once it keys up,
it's all simultaneous. The signal comes in, it goes out
(15:48):
right away. At the same time, now it goes out
farther because the repeater is probably putting out maybe about
one hundred watts, So you're covering maybe a sixty seventy
mile an hour range, which comes in pretty handy if
you're trying to talk to someone within that range.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
All right, so you guys are the Jupiter to quest
a repeater group. Are there other repeater groups throughout the
state that then your repeater will connect to them and
keep spreading the signal.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Not at this time. They have to be linked together.
And there is one system in the state of Florida,
it's called the Sarnet system, where they have about thirty
five to thirty seven repeaters that are all linked together.
So if we have one here in West Palm Beach,
and they're just all over the whole state, even down
into the keys, even a panhandle. So if you wanted
(16:36):
to talk to somebody up in the Panhandle, then you
just key up, you know, the West Palm Beach Sarnet repeater.
All of the other repeaters all come on at the
same time, so they're all hearing you even though you're
down here. But it comes in really handy in case
of a hurricane because if some area needs assistance and
they're able to get into the Sarinet system, now they
(16:56):
can like Red Cross or any of those agencies, they
can get on there and ask for whatever else they need,
you know, whether it's beds, food, water, clothing, stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
No, actually listen to it on the side.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Most of the time, the Sarinet repeater you can hear
when there is bad weather affecting different areas, like towards
Chipley and stuff. Yesterday they had some really bad storms
coming through there and they were talking about telling people, hey,
you may want to avoid.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This area and stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
So it's kind of like a like a weather map
without looking at a weather map.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's handy. U.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
During the October tornadoes, there were alerts coming out on
that Sarnete system over and over, you know, every it
seemed like there was every five or ten seconds. It
was another tornado alert coming out. That was scary because
we can deal with hurricanes most of the times as
long as they're not too strong. But when you start
embedding something like tornadoes in there with it, it gets
(17:49):
kind of spooky because there's you don't get much. You
don't have much of a warning when it comes to
tornadoes hurricanes. You can prepare for fill up your gas cans,
you know, get water and food like that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Well, yeah, like my best friend and I were both
working from home when the tornadoes happened. Sopt over and
my phone goes off and it's like seek shelter, and
it was like five minutes away, and I was like,
oh no, because I'm near Wellington. And I was like, well, okay,
then a little bit more notice would have been helpful.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What was the number? The one hundred and sixty seven?
Speaker 5 (18:18):
There was a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Then my friends in Wellington they had damage near their properties.
But luckily I was like the next I mean I
was real palm, so I was the next one over.
But I was like five minutes what kind of notice
is this?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I watched I watched that really large one that went
up and Fort Pearson did a lot of damage. It
was a half a mile away from my house and
it was going up by ninety five, which I'm not
that far away from it. I just watched it go
by and I was like, oh, praise, I'm glad that
didn't come here because it tore everything up going north.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Oh we did.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And I have coworkers in four piers. They're just like,
did you see that. I'm like, I was in the bathroom.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Yeah, I'm in my shelter, yeah, safe friends.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The one interior room.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
But yeah. So I think it's fantastic that you have
this really cao opportunity for folks to come up. So
it's going to be June twenty eighth to twenty ninth
at Carlon Park. What time does it start and end
where folks, because I know you have to go like
set up. What's a good time for people to pop
over and do the goda?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
A good time? A good time for the people to
come over is probably around two o'clock in the afternoon.
That's when that's when the contest actually starts. In the beforehand,
on Saturday morning, we're out there before sunrise and we're
starting to set up all the outside antennas, we have
plum Beach County firefighters. They bring out a generator trailer
(19:35):
tower and so we put an antenna on top of that.
We string up a few other antennas. We have what
they call diepoles. It's like, you know, imagine a couple
of coconut trees and you string a wire between the
two of them. You get on the air and talk.
So all the outside stuff we want to get done
early before the sun gets to.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Be a little bit too hot.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Then we set up on the inside and we'll cook
some lunch, you know, Hamburger's hot dogs, and all the
radios will be set up by two o'clock, which is
the start of the event, and it goes on from
two o'clock Saturday until two o'clock on Sunday at the
which would be the end of the event, and we
tear it all down and pack it away until next year.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So obviously you're doing hamburg of hot dogs people setting
up outside inside. Can people come and volunteer to help out,
like students or folks are just interested.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Oh, absolutely, they can come out and that's how they
can learn a little bit more about amateur radio and
how we can connect the cables to the radios, to
the antennas, things like that, helping to get everything set
up before the event starts, and as well as you know, yeah,
they can even listen to how things are going on
the airway of the conversations and get on the air
(20:44):
themselves and make a contact.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Yeah, they actually can see the different modes of operation
because we don't just stay with like a repeater. There's
the high frequency stuff. We have one of our members
he does satellite connections. Then there's the low power stations
we can do, which is like PoTA, they call it
parks on the air. But so there's a lot of
different types of options, of types of radio.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Going on at the same time.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
So it would be a good way to see all
the different versions of amateur radio all in one place.
And you know, they can say, I like I like
talking on repeaters, or I like that HF being able
to talk about or I like playing around on that satellite,
being able to talk to the International Space Station. So
you know, it gives them a good option to see
everything that's going on.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I would like to talk to the International Space Station.
I think that'd be cool.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
I've talked to them a couple of times going on
actually on a little handheld like that.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh wow, that's amazing. Yeah, and you said there like
waiting forty bucks.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Now, yeah, you can pick up the one of those
radios for like about forty bucks and it'll talk to
the International Space Station.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Nice.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Yeah, he's hook it up to hook it up to
like a little be antenna and just point it towards
where it's coming. You'll you can you can see if
you had a computer that showed where the satellites were,
and you'll be able to see that coming across the horizon.
And if you point it in that direct, now you're
pointing your signal right at the space station and receiving
(22:04):
any information from the space station.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh very cool.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
My friend teaches science, so that's gonna be a good
project for her kids for next year.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Sure it would be oh yeah, yeah, and hopefully you
know in the schools they're bringing in i'd.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Be something good too.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Is trying and get amateurity or back into schools because
it used to be in schools, and of course schools
have gone through all sorts of different changes and stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So that would be a good thing for.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
That's a nice thing, a nice add in. Yeah, so
we suggest that, yes, very cool. So for folks to
take a class, how long does the class take? Is
it a couple of weekends? A couple hours to train
to get their license?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
The class? The class is for one weekend. It's basically
all day on Saturday, from about nine till around four
or five in the afternoon, and all the classes, there's
four them, held at the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center.
On we go through all the material that they're going
to need to know for the exam, and then on
Sunday we start off again Sunday morning about nine o'clock
(23:00):
cover some more information and then immediately right after that
we hand out the exam. Exam is a technician class
is about thirty five questions on there. Thirty five questions
the answers are on there. You just have to pick
out the right one. The general class. There's three different classes,
the general classes and next one thirty five questions on
(23:20):
that exam. Then the highest level that you can get
is the Extra class, which has fifty questions on there,
and that's the toughest one to study for.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It was it was tough, so is.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
One of them. Is Morse code required for any of
those now, none of them, but some of the people
actually already had Morse code from before.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Or they'd like to learn Morse code, you know. And
it's it because there's there's places on a lot all
the bands that are on the radio where they have
Morse code, and also also digital communications which has become
quite popular.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Well, I will say I saw like a real on Facebook.
It's like Jimmy Kimmel's show or whatever. They had the
two hand radio operator guys and two guys with cell phones,
so they have the message in front of them. They
flip the message over. So the HAM Radio guys using
the Morse code texting to well not texting, but sending
the signal to the guy the other table across the
room from him, and the two guys are texting on
(24:16):
their phones the information. The Ham radio guys finished first. Yeah,
and the audience was like what.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Oh, yeah, it can be very fast. And I mean,
you know, it's I did code when I got my
license because that's the way it was back then and
stuff like that. And I'm fortunate I didn't keep up
with CW. And if you did something, if you don't practice,
you kind of lose it. I can kind of listen
to it and know what they're saying, but not as
well as if I had kept up with it. But
so it is another language. Some of the military guys
(24:46):
that were captured in prison and stuff U CW. And
that's how they communicated between each other.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
But taps, you know, knowing what's going on.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
So blinking their eyes and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yeah, so you know it's it's a good language, and
maybe ought to go back in and started to get
back into it again.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now that's true. Somewhat retired, right.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, now I got plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I find when people retired they have less time.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Interesting, I'm going to tell you that is very true.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I don't know how I did everything that I needed
to do when I was working full time, and now
that I'm retired, I have not. It's like the clock
goes on extra fast speed.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, And I think that that list of things you
need to do just gets longer because before you're like, okay,
I'm going to do one thing, and that's just all
you could do because you were working. Then when you're
not working, you're like, why I should we do all
twenty things? And you still can't get all twenty things done.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
No, you can't jam it all in and then you
know there's radio. You know, you got to get back
to your communications that you're.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Exactly so, speaking of the Jupiter Real Question Repeater Group,
when people log in, are there certain times of the
day that the club has that the group has activities
like is there like traffic reports in the morning, Is
there a coffee chat? Is there you know, science in
the afternoon, classics at dusk?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
What do you Usually?
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Throughout the day you'll find hammer radio operators bringing up
the repeaters in our area a Jupiter to Quest Repeater group.
We have four repeaters, ones for backup and then we
have the three others, two VHF and one UHF. But
in the on Tuesday evenings, we have what they call
a rag chew where at eight o'clock we have a
net control operator who takes check ins throughout the throughout
(26:25):
the net and we open it up for comments and
sometimes there'll be a something specific that we'll be discussing
and asking for input and like that usually lasts for
about an hour and we get anywhere from about ten
maybe twenty participants during the net and it's a lot
of fun and we have eight different net control operators,
(26:46):
so we switch up. You may only do it maybe
once every two months, but it's a good opportunity to
exercise control of the radio.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
And also it gives a chance to make sure your
radio equipment is working properly. That's another thing that we
do for help preparing yourself for hurricane season. Make sure
you know what's going on, know how to operate with
them stuff. So it's a good training back and forth.
Plus there's a lot of little things we talk about
on the system when we get done with it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh, very cool. I'd like it. So for people to
sign up to take a class. How would they do that?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
If they wanted to take a class, they could go
to the American Radio Relate League, all right. We advertise
our classes there on that site. We also advertise the
classes on the JTRG website, and if you want me to,
I'll give you the email address. It's www dot JTRG
dot org and you can see our calendar and when
(27:42):
the classes are and just drop me an email. My
email is in there as well, and then they can
just email me and I'll sign them up for the class.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
If there's somebody who wants to sponsor the group for
different activities. Can they reach out to you as well.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Sponsors, We've got a lot of sponsors. You never have
too many sponsors, but now, well we've got iHeart, We've
got publics, you know, We've got Cheney Brothers. We have
a lot of different local dunkin Donuts, you know, Miller Alehouse,
the Dune Dog with Brass Ring Pub, so many different
(28:17):
the town of Jupiter have been really helpful towards us.
But all of those sponsors, you know, Palm Beach County
Emergency Operations Center, the Palm Beach County Fire Chiefs Association
who help us out. It's just the list goes on
and on, and it's great because we're there to help
people out, you know, and if we do have an emergency,
(28:38):
we're there to help out everybody in the community that
we serve.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah, very blessed to be supported by that many supporters
out there. I mean some clubs don't get that type
of support, so it really helps out our club, you know.
And when a time of emergency, they can count on
us to help them out too. So you know, communication
is still a mean thrust in any type.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Of emergency or natural disaster. Communication is a must.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Oh, absolutely, because otherwise you don't know who needs help wear.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah, no, you don't know who what. Whever.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Somebody can be flooded, somebody else can be high and
dry with power, you know, right yep, Because like I know,
you heard the radio station, like a lot of us
had no power at home. They're like, come here, send
got things back on the air, got the you know,
the clients taken care of, because like when hurricanes happen,
certain businesses, like people aren't going to go in a cruise,
but they need to know what FPNL is helping where
they're at. So like we shift who's doing what wear
(29:34):
and to get the information out. So they just needed
us all here and we're like, okay, we'll be here.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
It's like the ham radio operators, you know, we know
which gas stations are opened up, which grocery stores are
opened up, who's got gas, who has ice? You know,
all those things are important, you know, because you're all
and you're kind of like in a survival mode, you know,
for at least another couple of weeks or so until
things start to get back to normal again.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, how much gas? Who has gas? You know? Or
what gas stations are open you know that gets to
be a problem.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, yeah, and that's actually luckily to most of the
generators now and there they are open faster now.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, they got it'll be a lot faster, a lot
quicker about keeping a gas station open.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Well, they're just utter destruction. And then you're going further out.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Somewhere again before we go Field Day dates and information
and how they can get more information about the club.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Field Day information. They can go to our website once again,
it's www. Dot j t RG, juputter to quest the
repeater group, you know, and dot org and they can
go on to the site. They'll find out there's a
calendar on there has all the events that are coming up.
And of course field Day is our biggest event that
we have throughout the year because it takes a lot
(30:45):
of manpower to help make this happen and a lot
of volunteers to help make it happen as well.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Very cool. Well, guys, thank you so much for such
a cool thing in the community. And it sounds like
a lot of fun too.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Oh yeah, it is a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
And I want to thank you, Thank you Deb and
the iHeart stations, you know, the network there for allowing
us to come on the air and talk about field day.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Really do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Oh, absolutely, That's what we're here for. Help out if
you need more information, reach out to me Palm Beach
Perspective at iHeartMedia dot com and I'm happy to fort
on the details. Don't forget you always download the shows
a podcast on our iHeartRadio app. Hope everybody has a
wonderful weekend. I'm dev Nev and this has been my perspective.
Remember life is good, so be your healthiest to you
(31:30):
and let's get out there and live it. Until next week, enjoy.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
iHeart Communities, the community engagement arm of the station, champions
critical issues and causes in the area of health and wellness,
social impact, education, literacy, and music and art. Join us
next week for Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective
Ihearts Communities Presents Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective, which dead Now.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good morning, welcome to Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective. I'm
your host, dev Now, thanks for spending your weekend with me.
All kinds of great things going on. If you haven't been,
definitely check this one out. They do this pretty much
every year now. It's the City of Fort Pierce and
it's an animal adoption center participation thing. They're working in
conjunction with Petco. That's a pet Cot Love Florida megapet
(00:28):
Adoption event. It's going to be happening June twenty seventh
through the twenty ninth. There's like over thirty seven thousand
cats and dogs that need to find homes. For more information,
you can go to the pet Adoption places also at
the Havert l Fen Center and that's from ten to
four those days, or the Fort Pierce Animal Adoption Center
(00:48):
from eleven to four. From more information, reach out to
Caitlin and she'll give you the details seven seven to two,
seven four to two, nine eight three five. So if
you're looking for a furry friend, they got you covered there.
So I like it. All kinds of things happening with
Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Divisions the Urn folks. So
there's an evening under the stars coming up. I love
(01:10):
these Wenesay do allt different kinds of things. This is
the Astronomy one. It is Wednesday, June twenty fifth. It
starts at seven pm and it's going to be in
the Pine Glades Natural Area in Jupiter. So come out
and join the County biologists and the Astronomical Society in
the Palm Beaches and they'll share the telescopes and show
you what they're seeing and why it's important and just
(01:30):
a fun night there. And then on Thursday, June twenty six,
eight am, bright and early the Cypress Creek Natural Area
in Jupiter. They're looking for folks to help them restore
that area by removing the non native invasive weed rattlebox.
So those a couple of the cool things. I love it.
Morning paddle on the Lasahachi Slew Blue Way and that's
(01:51):
going to be Thursday June twenty sixth at nine am.
Then they have an off road bike ride that was
July tenth at eight thirty am. You can simply go
to PBC r M for more details and all those things,
and to sign up and they'll it'll link you through
to the event right to sign up. Our reminder, Mounts
Botanical has lots of wonderful things happening throughout the summer.
(02:13):
There's treasure trucks, scavenger hunt, the giant green maize, their
beautiful butterfly garden, animal statuary, families, all kinds of fun things,
and they're offering free admission throughout the summer for kids.
You buy an adult ticket, the kids get in free
and that's it Mounts Botanical Simply go to Mounts dot
org for more details on that and they're happy to
fill you in. Oh a reminder, summer hours are happening
(02:36):
for the indoor pickleball at West Boyton Gate at the
West Boyton Westgate and West Jupiter Recreation Centers so you
can play inside and the air conditioning and it's going
on now through August third. For more details go to
Pbcparks dot com and they have all the times that
the different centers are open, so you can check that out.
(02:56):
And of course also in Saint Lucy's got Saint Lucy
County Hikes, which I love these all over the place,
so coming up on Saturday, June twenty eighth, from nine
am to eleven am. It's called Mammals in Our Midst
Hike and that's happening at the Sheraton's Scrub Preserve and
it's like raccoons and possums or opossums how everyone say.
It all fun so fun things there and they've lots
(03:19):
of different hikes listed there. Simply go to SLC hikes
dot org and they have listed in the times and
like the age groups that it's good for, because some
are better for the older folks and some are like
older kids, and some are better for the wei ones.
They also are offering parks in Pompeache County. More Commy
Park in del Rey offers functional fitness classes eight thirty
(03:40):
am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I know they have
classes in the Belclade Center and then South Winds Golf
Course renovation notice so it's undergoing a comprehensive renovation. So
it's going to definitely impact the playing conditions, but it
will improve them in the long run. So please be
paid and reach out if you want to schedule a
(04:01):
forsom for there, and they'll give you all the details.
Of what's happening when, Oh, speaking more fun, if you
haven't been to Daggerwing Nature's Center, they're doing an orienteering
fun class and that's going to be Wednesday, June twenty fifth,
ten am. And this one's good for ages eight and up.
It's ten dollars per participant, and you do need to
make a reservation for that one. They have enough naturalists
on hand to help with the class. And of course
(04:25):
we're celebrating Pride all month long, and the Historical Society
Palm Beach County has some nice exhibitions going on now
through the thirtieth Ain't too proud the Life and Times
are the Temptations happening at the Kravis Center through June
twenty ninth, Rumors playing at the Fau Theater Lab through
June twenty eighth, And of course Women of You Motto
(04:45):
happening at the more Common Museum in Japanese Gardens through
August twenty fourth. And of course we talked to our
friend Elizabeth a few weeks ago. Palm Beach Shakespeare Festivals
happening again. It's going to be at Carlon Park and
this is July tenth through thirteenth, and then July seventeenth
through the twentieth and this summer they're doing the presentation
of The Winter's Tale, so it's gonna be a lot
(05:07):
of fun. Freed mission. There's a five dollars suggested donation
if you can, but you can bring your snacks, your food,
your blanky, whatever you know, lawn chair, or you can
buy the food there if you'd rather not carry everything
with you. And if you follow them on Facebook and
Pbshakespeare dot org, she does live weather updates on the
nights at the event because they're like rain or shine.
(05:29):
And of course the North Museum has got lots of
cool things happening on The North Museum has a lot
of fun things happening as well, and they are doing
a free admission for Palm Beach County residents every Saturday
through the summer through the end of August, and then
if you live in Palm Beach County, so I say,
if you live in West Palm Beach, Saturday mission is
always free as well. And something Go to Norton dot
(05:50):
org and you can get a list of all the
different programs and exhibitions they have happening. And don't forget
the first Friday Art after Dark is always the Jazz one,
so if you're a jazz fan, you want to check
out gets their tickets and go see that one. I've
been getting tickets. Lots of cool things happening at the Cravis,
like I said on the Ain't Too Proud, and then
coming up next year, their big Cravis on Broadway series
(06:11):
includes kimberle Okimbo whichwas the night before and that was
going to be like a cirk to solet one, so
that's going to be really cool, The Choir of Man
Some Like It, Hot MJ the musical A Beautiful Noise,
which is the Neil Diamond one. So definitely go to
Cravis dot org and get more information there. And if
you're interested in being a volunteer, now is a good
time to sign up because they have time to train
(06:32):
you over the summer and now I want to get
Speaking of getting more information and becoming a volunteer and
doing all the fun things, I want to welcome my
guests for today, I have Bert Maureshi and Herb Price
from the Jupiter to questa repeater group.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Good morning guys, Good morning deb from Morning Dead.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Good morning. So Herb, you are the board director for
the j t RG.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Correct, yes to quest a repeater group.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And you're a Ham newby, you've only been doing it
for thirty two years.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Right yeah, hard you know, and you start thinking about
the time it went back and went, wow, I've been
doing this for a long time.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So yeah, time flies.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's cool when you're having fun.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I like it. Yeah, it is all right.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So Bert, you're the president and an instructors like if
I want to become a Ham radio operator, I'm becoming
you teach the class, right.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Oh, absolutely, love to have you get your Ham radio
license to think that's great on here.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
She would sound really great on the reputer.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So anyway, so you've been like, you're not quite as
much of a newbie as herb. You've been doing for.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
Thirty five years, right yeah, correct, you part of this
quarter century club.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's a cool club to be part of.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
So for listeners who might be new to the area
or just haven't heard it in general, what is a
Ham radio operator?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
What is Ham radio in general? For folks like a
little bit.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Of history, Well, ham radio is another name for amateur radio,
and of course the Ham got the name because of
the amateur radio operators who would love to get on
the microphone and kind of ham it up. So they
got a nickname. You know, my name a Ham, you know.
And but this, the Ham radio has been going on
for such a long time here now started out with
(08:09):
the Morse code, Marconi with the spark gap, and just
anybody can become a Ham radio operator if they if
they put their mind to a little bit. The exam
is not that hard. It takes a little bit of
studying and away you go, get yourself for radio and
get on the air and talk to a lot of
people around the world and other people that are in
(08:29):
your area, help out during emergencies or disasters. It's it's
a great hobby.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh absolutely. And I always think of you guys about
this time of year because as we're now in hurricane season. Yes,
obviously many years ago we had the three hurricanes in
a row and we without power for weeks and people's
cell phones went down. Oh yeah, does hand radio still work,
didn't they?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Ham radio still does work. And I think that's a
lot of people don't realize. You know, our cellular network
is you know, heavy technology infrastructure out there right now,
and I know Bert's seeing it too. There's a service
out there showing little handhelds and they tell you can
have communication doing emergencies. Well they're basically cell phones. They're
talking over to cellular so you start losing the cellar site.
(09:15):
Then those are no good. Amateur radio works all the time.
We have different modes and stuff. And then something Burt
brought up really quickly was a CW. You know, we
don't or you don't have to test on CW anymore.
The Morse code has been eliminated out of getting your licenses,
and I think that held up a lot of people
did not want to.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Study Morse code. Yeah, and devs raising her hand back there.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
But now it's a lot easier you get enter in
as a technician. Bert does some really great work on
the classes there. There's books that you can read and
know and Burt goes over those and that's an injury level.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
It's a technician class.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
And with let's see about thing radio is I think
probably thirty five dollars handheld, you can get on the
repeaters and talk to a lot of people and have
communit and that's one of the things during a hurricane,
the repeaters normally the amateur radio repeaters all stay up
versus sailor.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, they do go down sometimes.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Oh that's true. I like that. So you actually have
a lot of people in your class birth that are
first responders, fire rescue, police officers.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Correct.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
We have people from all walks of life and all ages.
It doesn't matter your age, it doesn't matter, you know,
what type of job that you have. Anybody can become
a Ham radio operator. We've got we got folks that
are doctors and firefighters and sheriff's officers. We got people
that from all walks of life, different trades, engineers and
(10:38):
stuff like that. You know, they just they enjoy the
hobby of talking with other people. And you did mention
about the about the infrastructure going down, and that did
happen during the first two hurricanes that we got Jean Francis,
where the cell sites went down, communications went down. All
we had was amateur radio until the infrastructure got back
up again. So we were in communications with the Palm
(11:01):
Beach Fire and Rescue because they had some Ham radio
operators as well, so that way we were able to
relay information to them.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And I know here I heart. We had a couple
engineers that were radio and They're like, we got you covered.
And then like a couple of days later, I came
into we're able to get into the office, and I
have a I had Verizon at the time, and my
phone was still working. I had one like one hundred
people in the building. There was two phones that were working.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Mine was one of them.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Give me your phone, your phone.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, I mean, well, you know, the National Hurricane Center
in Miami has an amateur radio station down there that
they communicate when hurricanes going on, because I know that
is a reliable source when all the other.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Stuff goes down.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I mean, you know, people think, well, there's satellite and
stuff like that, but you may not want to be
standing outside with you know, ninety mile an hour wind
trying to get a satellite connection for your sat phone there.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So amateur radio really.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Covers a lot of different areas and the like Bert
was saying, all walks of life are in amateur radio.
And also, you know, the thing we like to bring
into and bird stunn it too, is like get the
younger generation to come in and get away from the
cell phone stuff. So much amateur radio plays an important
part and there's parts of America that there is no
cell phone coverage whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh wow, So then Ham Radio would be helpful.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
Yeah, yeah, it would be.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
One of the things you do every day is to
do what they call the field day.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yes, yes, it's a.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Two day period. This year, it's going to be June
twenty eight through the twenty ninth. Where's it happening this year?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
This year we're going to be at the Carland Park
Civic Center, just like we've been for the last several years.
It's a great place and it's a good opportunity for
the general public to pass through and actually see how
the radios are set up, watch how we communicate, and
if they're interested and they want to make a contact,
they're able to do that because we'll have licensed to
(12:50):
amateur radio operators there to help them get on the
air and to make that contact.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So your goota, your goda.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Goda, Yeah, gotta get on the air.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I like that it works. Hey, it likes like when
the letters makes sense. So for folks coming out, like
you said, there's no real age limit on Ham Radio,
So could like a fifteen year old get a license.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
We've had five year olds get a license.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So oh yeah, so that's.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Cool, and I know like in the past we've talked.
You can talk to anybody anywhere in the world, right,
you just have to make the link correct. So are
there different techniques to get a further reach.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
A lot of times you have to be in the
time of the year or a period of time. Right now,
we're in a sunspot cycle number twenty five, and during
that time we have good good propagation. In other words,
the radio rate waves will travel a lot farther than
they would otherwise, so now you can make long distance
contacts Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
So how long will that sun cycle last?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
A couple of months, usually a few years, Oh, a
few years?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Oh okay, cool.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think we're in the mid close to the mid
portion mark of that sun cycle. But it lasts usually
four or five years ago.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And then science is fun. I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And you know, that's a good thing about the younger
kids getting in an amateur adio because that becomes your
future technology people, scientific people, whether the male or female.
Actually the girls do much better in the mathematics and
stuff like that, so.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
It's good to see there.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
And there's a lot of we call them yl's young
ladies in the amateur radio field, and they have done
fantastic work in developing types of antennas and also improvement
on types of HF or high frequency rigs, and that's
what we use for talking around the world. The handheld
like I got here is for local talking on repeaters
and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And it's like a size slightly smaller than a cell phone,
but a little bit thicker, just a little thicker because
of bat walkie talkie.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's it. It's a walkie talkie basically. So so those
are some of the things we look at. And I
tell you, the h IF has been very good. I
like Blert Bert was saying, talking to Australia, talk over
towards Japan or go back over towards you know, the
European side and Great Britain. So yeah, it's some good communication.
Even Canada we talked today. We get them a lot too.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So HF is high frequency, yes, So obviously for folks
like back up a little bits of radio waves. Yes,
So you have the AM waves and FM waves and
you're using a high frequency option.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
That's correct. There's also there's also a lot of the
local repeaters around as well, and the repeater. What you
do is if you can talk into a repeater, maybe
using a handheld then probably maybe one or a couple
of watts or whatever you can, you can bring up
the repeater. Now, the repeater itself, once it keys up,
it's all simultaneous. The signal comes in, it goes out
(15:48):
right away. At the same time, now it goes out
farther because the repeater is probably putting out maybe about
one hundred watts, So you're covering maybe a sixty seventy
mile an hour range, which comes in pretty handy if
you're trying to talk to someone within that range.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
All right, so you guys are the Jupiter to quest
a repeater group. Are there other repeater groups throughout the
state that then your repeater will connect to them and
keep spreading the signal.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Not at this time. They have to be linked together.
And there is one system in the state of Florida,
it's called the Sarnet system, where they have about thirty
five to thirty seven repeaters that are all linked together.
So if we have one here in West Palm Beach,
and they're just all over the whole state, even down
into the keys, even a panhandle. So if you wanted
(16:36):
to talk to somebody up in the Panhandle, then you
just key up, you know, the West Palm Beach Sarnet repeater.
All of the other repeaters all come on at the
same time, so they're all hearing you even though you're
down here. But it comes in really handy in case
of a hurricane because if some area needs assistance and
they're able to get into the Sarinet system, now they
(16:56):
can like Red Cross or any of those agencies, they
can get on there and ask for whatever else they need,
you know, whether it's beds, food, water, clothing, stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
No, actually listen to it on the side.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Most of the time, the Sarinet repeater you can hear
when there is bad weather affecting different areas, like towards
Chipley and stuff. Yesterday they had some really bad storms
coming through there and they were talking about telling people, hey,
you may want to avoid.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
This area and stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
So it's kind of like a like a weather map
without looking at a weather map.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's handy. U.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
During the October tornadoes, there were alerts coming out on
that Sarnete system over and over, you know, every it
seemed like there was every five or ten seconds. It
was another tornado alert coming out. That was scary because
we can deal with hurricanes most of the times as
long as they're not too strong. But when you start
embedding something like tornadoes in there with it, it gets
(17:49):
kind of spooky because there's you don't get much. You
don't have much of a warning when it comes to
tornadoes hurricanes. You can prepare for fill up your gas cans,
you know, get water and food like that.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Well, yeah, like my best friend and I were both
working from home when the tornadoes happened. Sopt over and
my phone goes off and it's like seek shelter, and
it was like five minutes away, and I was like,
oh no, because I'm near Wellington. And I was like, well, okay,
then a little bit more notice would have been helpful.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What was the number? The one hundred and sixty seven?
Speaker 5 (18:18):
There was a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Then my friends in Wellington they had damage near their properties.
But luckily I was like the next I mean I
was real palm, so I was the next one over.
But I was like five minutes what kind of notice
is this?
Speaker 4 (18:28):
I watched I watched that really large one that went
up and Fort Pearson did a lot of damage. It
was a half a mile away from my house and
it was going up by ninety five, which I'm not
that far away from it. I just watched it go
by and I was like, oh, praise, I'm glad that
didn't come here because it tore everything up going north.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Oh we did.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
And I have coworkers in four piers. They're just like,
did you see that. I'm like, I was in the bathroom.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
Yeah, I'm in my shelter, yeah, safe friends.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
The one interior room.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
But yeah. So I think it's fantastic that you have
this really cao opportunity for folks to come up. So
it's going to be June twenty eighth to twenty ninth
at Carlon Park. What time does it start and end
where folks, because I know you have to go like
set up. What's a good time for people to pop
over and do the goda?
Speaker 5 (19:13):
A good time? A good time for the people to
come over is probably around two o'clock in the afternoon.
That's when that's when the contest actually starts. In the beforehand,
on Saturday morning, we're out there before sunrise and we're
starting to set up all the outside antennas, we have
plum Beach County firefighters. They bring out a generator trailer
(19:35):
tower and so we put an antenna on top of that.
We string up a few other antennas. We have what
they call diepoles. It's like, you know, imagine a couple
of coconut trees and you string a wire between the
two of them. You get on the air and talk.
So all the outside stuff we want to get done
early before the sun gets to.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Be a little bit too hot.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Then we set up on the inside and we'll cook
some lunch, you know, Hamburger's hot dogs, and all the
radios will be set up by two o'clock, which is
the start of the event, and it goes on from
two o'clock Saturday until two o'clock on Sunday at the
which would be the end of the event, and we
tear it all down and pack it away until next year.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So obviously you're doing hamburg of hot dogs people setting
up outside inside. Can people come and volunteer to help out,
like students or folks are just interested.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Oh, absolutely, they can come out and that's how they
can learn a little bit more about amateur radio and
how we can connect the cables to the radios, to
the antennas, things like that, helping to get everything set
up before the event starts, and as well as you know, yeah,
they can even listen to how things are going on
the airway of the conversations and get on the air
(20:44):
themselves and make a contact.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Yeah, they actually can see the different modes of operation
because we don't just stay with like a repeater. There's
the high frequency stuff. We have one of our members
he does satellite connections. Then there's the low power stations
we can do, which is like PoTA, they call it
parks on the air. But so there's a lot of
different types of options, of types of radio.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Going on at the same time.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
So it would be a good way to see all
the different versions of amateur radio all in one place.
And you know, they can say, I like I like
talking on repeaters, or I like that HF being able
to talk about or I like playing around on that satellite,
being able to talk to the International Space Station. So
you know, it gives them a good option to see
everything that's going on.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I would like to talk to the International Space Station.
I think that'd be cool.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
I've talked to them a couple of times going on
actually on a little handheld like that.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh wow, that's amazing. Yeah, and you said there like
waiting forty bucks.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Now, yeah, you can pick up the one of those
radios for like about forty bucks and it'll talk to
the International Space Station.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Nice.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
Yeah, he's hook it up to hook it up to
like a little be antenna and just point it towards
where it's coming. You'll you can you can see if
you had a computer that showed where the satellites were,
and you'll be able to see that coming across the horizon.
And if you point it in that direct, now you're
pointing your signal right at the space station and receiving
(22:04):
any information from the space station.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh very cool.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
My friend teaches science, so that's gonna be a good
project for her kids for next year.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Sure it would be oh yeah, yeah, and hopefully you
know in the schools they're bringing in i'd.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Be something good too.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Is trying and get amateurity or back into schools because
it used to be in schools, and of course schools
have gone through all sorts of different changes and stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So that would be a good thing for.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
That's a nice thing, a nice add in. Yeah, so
we suggest that, yes, very cool. So for folks to
take a class, how long does the class take? Is
it a couple of weekends? A couple hours to train
to get their license?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
The class? The class is for one weekend. It's basically
all day on Saturday, from about nine till around four
or five in the afternoon, and all the classes, there's
four them, held at the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center.
On we go through all the material that they're going
to need to know for the exam, and then on
Sunday we start off again Sunday morning about nine o'clock
(23:00):
cover some more information and then immediately right after that
we hand out the exam. Exam is a technician class
is about thirty five questions on there. Thirty five questions
the answers are on there. You just have to pick
out the right one. The general class. There's three different classes,
the general classes and next one thirty five questions on
(23:20):
that exam. Then the highest level that you can get
is the Extra class, which has fifty questions on there,
and that's the toughest one to study for.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It was it was tough, so is.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
One of them. Is Morse code required for any of
those now, none of them, but some of the people
actually already had Morse code from before.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Or they'd like to learn Morse code, you know. And
it's it because there's there's places on a lot all
the bands that are on the radio where they have
Morse code, and also also digital communications which has become
quite popular.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Well, I will say I saw like a real on Facebook.
It's like Jimmy Kimmel's show or whatever. They had the
two hand radio operator guys and two guys with cell phones,
so they have the message in front of them. They
flip the message over. So the HAM Radio guys using
the Morse code texting to well not texting, but sending
the signal to the guy the other table across the
room from him, and the two guys are texting on
(24:16):
their phones the information. The Ham radio guys finished first. Yeah,
and the audience was like what.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Oh, yeah, it can be very fast. And I mean,
you know, it's I did code when I got my
license because that's the way it was back then and
stuff like that. And I'm fortunate I didn't keep up
with CW. And if you did something, if you don't practice,
you kind of lose it. I can kind of listen
to it and know what they're saying, but not as
well as if I had kept up with it. But
so it is another language. Some of the military guys
(24:46):
that were captured in prison and stuff U CW. And
that's how they communicated between each other.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
But taps, you know, knowing what's going on.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
So blinking their eyes and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yeah, so you know it's it's a good language, and
maybe ought to go back in and started to get
back into it again.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now that's true. Somewhat retired, right.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Yeah, now I got plenty of time.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I find when people retired they have less time.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Interesting, I'm going to tell you that is very true.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I don't know how I did everything that I needed
to do when I was working full time, and now
that I'm retired, I have not. It's like the clock
goes on extra fast speed.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, And I think that that list of things you
need to do just gets longer because before you're like, okay,
I'm going to do one thing, and that's just all
you could do because you were working. Then when you're
not working, you're like, why I should we do all
twenty things? And you still can't get all twenty things done.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
No, you can't jam it all in and then you
know there's radio. You know, you got to get back
to your communications that you're.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Exactly so, speaking of the Jupiter Real Question Repeater Group,
when people log in, are there certain times of the
day that the club has that the group has activities
like is there like traffic reports in the morning, Is
there a coffee chat? Is there you know, science in
the afternoon, classics at dusk?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
What do you Usually?
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Throughout the day you'll find hammer radio operators bringing up
the repeaters in our area a Jupiter to Quest Repeater group.
We have four repeaters, ones for backup and then we
have the three others, two VHF and one UHF. But
in the on Tuesday evenings, we have what they call
a rag chew where at eight o'clock we have a
net control operator who takes check ins throughout the throughout
(26:25):
the net and we open it up for comments and
sometimes there'll be a something specific that we'll be discussing
and asking for input and like that usually lasts for
about an hour and we get anywhere from about ten
maybe twenty participants during the net and it's a lot
of fun and we have eight different net control operators,
(26:46):
so we switch up. You may only do it maybe
once every two months, but it's a good opportunity to
exercise control of the radio.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
And also it gives a chance to make sure your
radio equipment is working properly. That's another thing that we
do for help preparing yourself for hurricane season. Make sure
you know what's going on, know how to operate with
them stuff. So it's a good training back and forth.
Plus there's a lot of little things we talk about
on the system when we get done with it.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh, very cool. I'd like it. So for people to
sign up to take a class. How would they do that?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
If they wanted to take a class, they could go
to the American Radio Relate League, all right. We advertise
our classes there on that site. We also advertise the
classes on the JTRG website, and if you want me to,
I'll give you the email address. It's www dot JTRG
dot org and you can see our calendar and when
(27:42):
the classes are and just drop me an email. My
email is in there as well, and then they can
just email me and I'll sign them up for the class.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
If there's somebody who wants to sponsor the group for
different activities. Can they reach out to you as well.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
Sponsors, We've got a lot of sponsors. You never have
too many sponsors, but now, well we've got iHeart, We've
got publics, you know, We've got Cheney Brothers. We have
a lot of different local dunkin Donuts, you know, Miller Alehouse,
the Dune Dog with Brass Ring Pub, so many different
(28:17):
the town of Jupiter have been really helpful towards us.
But all of those sponsors, you know, Palm Beach County
Emergency Operations Center, the Palm Beach County Fire Chiefs Association
who help us out. It's just the list goes on
and on, and it's great because we're there to help
people out, you know, and if we do have an emergency,
(28:38):
we're there to help out everybody in the community that
we serve.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah, very blessed to be supported by that many supporters
out there. I mean some clubs don't get that type
of support, so it really helps out our club, you know.
And when a time of emergency, they can count on
us to help them out too. So you know, communication
is still a mean thrust in any type.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Of emergency or natural disaster. Communication is a must.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Oh, absolutely, because otherwise you don't know who needs help wear.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah, no, you don't know who what. Whever.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Somebody can be flooded, somebody else can be high and
dry with power, you know, right yep, Because like I know,
you heard the radio station, like a lot of us
had no power at home. They're like, come here, send
got things back on the air, got the you know,
the clients taken care of, because like when hurricanes happen,
certain businesses, like people aren't going to go in a cruise,
but they need to know what FPNL is helping where
they're at. So like we shift who's doing what wear
(29:34):
and to get the information out. So they just needed
us all here and we're like, okay, we'll be here.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
It's like the ham radio operators, you know, we know
which gas stations are opened up, which grocery stores are
opened up, who's got gas, who has ice? You know,
all those things are important, you know, because you're all
and you're kind of like in a survival mode, you know,
for at least another couple of weeks or so until
things start to get back to normal again.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Yeah, how much gas? Who has gas? You know? Or
what gas stations are open you know that gets to
be a problem.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Well, yeah, and that's actually luckily to most of the
generators now and there they are open faster now.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, they got it'll be a lot faster, a lot
quicker about keeping a gas station open.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Well, they're just utter destruction. And then you're going further out.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Somewhere again before we go Field Day dates and information
and how they can get more information about the club.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Field Day information. They can go to our website once again,
it's www. Dot j t RG, juputter to quest the
repeater group, you know, and dot org and they can
go on to the site. They'll find out there's a
calendar on there has all the events that are coming up.
And of course field Day is our biggest event that
we have throughout the year because it takes a lot
(30:45):
of manpower to help make this happen and a lot
of volunteers to help make it happen as well.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Very cool. Well, guys, thank you so much for such
a cool thing in the community. And it sounds like
a lot of fun too.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Oh yeah, it is a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
And I want to thank you, Thank you Deb and
the iHeart stations, you know, the network there for allowing
us to come on the air and talk about field day.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Really do appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Oh, absolutely, That's what we're here for. Help out if
you need more information, reach out to me Palm Beach
Perspective at iHeartMedia dot com and I'm happy to fort
on the details. Don't forget you always download the shows
a podcast on our iHeartRadio app. Hope everybody has a
wonderful weekend. I'm dev Nev and this has been my perspective.
Remember life is good, so be your healthiest to you
(31:30):
and let's get out there and live it. Until next week, enjoy.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
iHeart Communities, the community engagement arm of the station, champions
critical issues and causes in the area of health and wellness,
social impact, education, literacy, and music and art. Join us
next week for Palm Beach Treasure Coast Perspective
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