Forgotten ICom Radio, Texas Hams September 2025

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, what is going on? Ladies and gentlemen. I'm Frank
Cage G five HJ and welcome to the Texas Ham Podcast.
This is a once a month podcast where I Void,
where I invite all my Texas hamd friends just to
hang out for an hour or so to just talk
about what's going on in the channel, some background stuff

(00:20):
and what other else pops up. I need to be
taking notes usually do that, but it's not up. I'm
joining me right now. We're going to have some other
friends hopefully pop in here soon. We have l new

(00:42):
Ham Radio YouTuber and Soda and Colorado Overlanding Extravagator. How
are you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hey there, Frank, thanks for the love the intro. I'm
doing well, just done with my workday today and thanks
for the invite here.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well welcome. We'll like to have you on more regularly
and hang out with us. And of course we got
Mike mister k Murder himself formerly known as God. I
can't even I forgot the channel, Dame, I can't remember. Finally,
finally Radio Mike Ham Radio Stuff. It's close.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Hi. My name is Mike ka'marty with Ham Radio Tube
formerly Kate and Marti Radio Stuff but that's it. It's
in a while. How are we feeling today?

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I was feeling, you know, excited and ready, and then
I just blundered.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
You hit that record button and it all goes downhill, pressers.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
On, Yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I'm enjoying the outdoors this evening. It is uh eighty seven,
but it feels like it's low eighties right now outside.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Here in gorgeous right now it is in North Texas.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
It is, and I'm in join the weather while we
have it, because you know, who knows what's gonna do
in uh October cool down heay. October could be you know,
hundreds or freezing cold snaps. You never know.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I'm usually summer is my favorite time of year because
I hate the cold. But after this summer, like the
previous summers were hotter, but they were drier where I am.
I'm one hundred and seventy miles south of Dallas. It
is just hot and humid all day every day. I
don't we haven't had really any like plus one hundred

(02:45):
degree days, but probably like one hundred and high nineties
every day. It's rains so freaking much this year.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yes, well, thankfully right now it's not humid Dallas. Recently
this year has been feeling like it was Houston and
has been annoying. It hasn't been topping one hundreds, but
you walk outside in that humidity hits you and you're like,
I do not want to be out here. I don't
know how you live so close to Houston there, Mike,
I will.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Take Houston over Detroit any day.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think many would maybe, But I was.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Born in Florida, Like the first eight years of my
life were just north of Fort Lauderdale. It's hot and
humid there too, like, so it's it's in my blood.
I just had to suffer the cold and gray misery
that is Michigan for most of my life. So, but
I chose to move to the Houston area.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
And you.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Did.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
How's it going, guys? It guls I were just talking
typical ham radio conversation of the weather about humidity. If
it's about humidity, then I should be involved.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
I'm not complaining. I'm not.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I know you.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, for the seasons to.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Change, Yeah, I think you handled a better than me.
I'm used to dry higher elevations. But this year actually
hasn't been bad. I've enjoyed this summer actually in Texas.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Mm hmm, it's been a nice summer. Yeah, I really
enjoyed it. However, Yeah, I just I'm complaining about the
humidity because I got to complain about something. But it's like, man,
it's been rainy. The other day, I was sitting in
my just just watching TV, and out of nowhere, I'm like,
is that thunder? And all of a sudden it's pouring outside,

(04:31):
Like where did that come from?

Speaker 3 (04:34):
But you know what the great thing is about living
in the South, Frank, what is it?

Speaker 1 (04:39):
It is?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Typically on January first, we are shoeless on the beach
in Galveston Island in shorts and a T shirt. Yes,
so whereas if I were still living in Michigan, I
would not be shoeless.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
We are.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
On ice shoving some snow.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yes, we're waiting to hear if the typical gathering spot
is rented out or not if we're going to go
down there again this year. But I'm looking forward to that. Yeah,
that would be fun. Oh just kind of inform you
the last three four years we've all gone down and

(05:21):
hung out at Jason's beach house, and we've poda on
the first day of the New Year, also my birthday, Yes,
and and just kind of hang out and we have
a open call. Just come out, hang out out with
us at a beach. We're going to be here through
the typical day, playing Poda and hanging out Ham radio

(05:46):
and enjoying the day. Which beach Galveston State Island is
State Park.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, I think Jason was there recently there right now.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
There, right now, yeah, okay, Yeah, he's down there and
join a couple of weeks with him and his wife
and be back up here next week. I bet he's
doing a lot of filming. Well he can at that park.
You mean literally seven minutes away from his house. Yeah,
it's so nice with.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
The goal of posting every day. Yeah, I imagine he's
getting a lot of content down there.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
It takes me eleven minutes to get to Huntsville State Park.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Eleven minutes.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Oh, Galveston in maybe so well, the way he drives
probably seven minutes.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, and that eleven minutes, I bet you you probably
got something closer than that, don't you. Or is that
the closest one, Oh, that is the closest.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Closest, Yeah, that's the closest one to Mike, I would
love eleven minutes.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
It's pretty great. Like I've gone there and set up
at the CAD. I'm already proving grounds where I usually do,
and like ill for if I forget something, I just
leave it there and drive home and drive back, like
I don't have to worry about I've I forgot to
bring a mask there or I had a mask, and
I like I sat on the ground while I wound

(07:10):
up the antenna, and like two weeks later, I'm tearing
apart my house, my car looking for this thing, and
I'm like, where the hell is it? And then so
I go back to Huntsville State Park and I'm like,
son of a gun, I know exactly where it is,
and it is exactly where I left it.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Was it leaning in a tree or was it just
kind of just on.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
The ground because they didn't have another activation. No, I
don't think i'd been back there in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
I was either doing after.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Filming, because I always go to the same place well,
depending like if I'm going to shoot a video. I
have this one part in the park with a bench
that's like right next to the parking area, in the
de use area, So I just go there, but a
lot other times I'll do a lot of hike, Like
I know that park like the back of my hand,
but I usually go to the same spot because it's
a wide open area and it's like right on the road.

(08:07):
So people tend to not go there. They tend to
go to like other parts of the day use area.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
So you just did a new location right recently, or
a different area of the park.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, So I found I was I was bringing the
QMX and like carrying it sucks in that bag that
I have, So I'm like, you know what, I'm just
going to go over here where I know there's a place.
And then I was like I found another place. When
I got to that place, I was like, oh, this
is cool. And it's like maybe a quarter mile hike

(08:41):
in it's nothing, So that was pretty cool. But yeah,
like I've always been the kid that just goes off
into the woods and explores, or sometimes if I'm bored,
I'll just get in my car and drive in any
random direction and you know what, just to see what's
on the other side of the hill.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
So yeah, Mike, I saw that you had your QMX video.
Did you get your water bottle bag to work.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
No, so that No, it was a good It was
a good bag, but it wasn't it didn't have enough
storage to put everything in. So I just sent it back.
But the video that I am editing, I'm actually done
editing it, but I need to render. It is about
a new bag that I got that does exactly what

(09:27):
I wanted to do.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
It's what do you mean by is it just like
a camel bag or something like that?

Speaker 3 (09:36):
No, well this is uh this this is only audio, right, Frank, Yes,
this isn't gonna be on all right.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Yeah, you can get up in your underwear.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So well he's going out and getting that. How have
you been, Paul?

Speaker 4 (09:52):
Oh I'm good. I'm glad. August is over.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Man.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
It was as fun as Huntsville and Tokyo Ham for August. Yeah,
freaking busy because I still have to work, and when
I work, I travel, So all I did in August
was traveling. I was exhausted. So now I'm on vacation
for September.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
So yeah, we're going to circle back to that in
a second. So would you grab Mike?

Speaker 3 (10:16):
So this is the bat and actually this podcast I
think is posting Friday and my video is posting Friday.
So this bag is a tiny little sling bag Molly
on the front.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
So Sean Ham.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Radio dude is now dude tested W nine fff uh.
He found this design and remixed it to hold the mask,
so the mask just pops off.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
I saw that post.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Either he or you posted that, right, somebody just well
Sean made a little short about it or short. Yeah,
but I didn't have this bag then.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
That is cool.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
So yeah, it just attaches there. So this doesn't fit
like the Malli spacing there. I guess there's no standard
in China for Molli spacing. So I send him some measurements,
so he's going to redesign this part so I can
put these other two hooks in there. But this way,
I can just wear this around my back and then
like everything that I had in my max pedition bag

(11:18):
is in this bag. QMX battery, two microphones, CWKE. I
put the K six a r kcwkey here because I
had that the nameless key, so I put that in
my seventy three hundred and this around my back will
just lay horizontally like this, and I can just go
hiking in the woods and not I worry about it,

(11:39):
and then I can still carry my water bottle in
one hand and my camera in the other, and life
is good.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
The only comment I have on that is if you
can find a way to attach it to be like
a secondary auxiliary bag, the you can throw on the
back of another bag. So I have my big backing
backpack that's loaded up for the day hike and water
and food and first day kit, and I want to
take the radio and I can. I just like slap

(12:08):
it to the back or slap it to the bottom
and just be good to go.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
But see that has so every situation is different. And
what you just mentioned food and snacks I don't need.
First off, I don't need food and snacks right there.
Really don't need food and snacks on a three or
four hour hike.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
It was audio. You need to explain what he just did.
He just leaned back and grabbed his belly and say
he does.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
He did, And I seconded by padding my.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Own so I can go a few hours without eating.
Food is not a priority of mine at all when
I'm hiking, because I'm going. The trails I'm on are
a loop, okay, so the max you can go is
like eight miles and then you're back at square one.
So I usually go in at the trailhead, go to

(12:56):
where I want to go, and then I hike back
the same way I came in. And depending on where
I want to go, I'll go in in different areas
of the park at different trailheads, depending on how far
I feel like hiking or what area of the park
I want to go to. So to basically to answer
your question, if I wanted to carry more stuff, I

(13:17):
would use probably my Gigaparts explorer bag that usually houses
my seventy three hundred just lives in there. But I
could take a bigger bag. If I still wanted to
use the QMX, I could take this tiny bag and
put it in a bigger bag. I'm gonna I'm going
to Washington State in October for the Ham Radio Adventurers
Club yearly outing that we do in Pacific Beach, So

(13:39):
I'm going to be taking this with me. So this,
I mean, it's tiny.

Speaker 4 (13:44):
Already.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
QMX is inner everything, speaker, key, cables, everything, everything the
entire radio station is in here.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
I'm sorry, do you need an automatically tune the QMAX
or how does the so the last time we sho.
I mentioned I do not rely on antenna tuners. I
use resident antenna's okay, So there's a there's a tiny
little end fed halfwave in here by is it justin
km for QCF? What the heck is Q I can't.

(14:17):
I can't remember his call sign off the.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Top of my head. But that's PENNA or the other one.
That's the transformer right there, this tiny little thing. And
then I've made links on this so if it's deployed fully,
it's forty meters, so it's resident on forty twenty fifteen
and ten. I think on this one, I made a
link for twenty so I can take off the forty
meter element parts so it's shorter. And I think I

(14:41):
have another link for seventeen meters so I can get
on seventeen as well, so it's kind of multi. I
invented the end, the linked en fed halfwave, and everyone.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
Oh God, here we go. I did.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
I did find find an end find a LinkedIn fed
half wait before my before my.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Video on the pac tenner, I think it was pretty
much all dipoles. To be honest, I think I think
he may be right.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
You you probably put it on YouTube first, but it's
been around longer than you. I doubt it.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
Let's find it. I challenge you because the email I
want nail me with a reference of a linked and
fed halfwave.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Prior to my And what's your email address?

Speaker 3 (15:25):
My email is K eight M R D at iCloud
dot com. Oh my god, iCloud, your damn right eye cloud.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
I had to throw that in there. That's actually a
cool pack. I love how it's all compact and everything
for the radio is a one bag. And now if
you want throw the intent the mast on it and boom,
it is self contained radio to go. I love that.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
I also made in the in a previous video like that,
the one that I was referencing, I went to Academy
and bought some thirty pound braided fishing line and a
little it's like a little torpedo sinker thing, so I
can use the throw eight if I want to use that.
That also it's not in here now, but it also
does fit in here.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Oh that's nice.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
I did so if I don't want to use the
mast for some reason, which is pretty much never, I could,
I can have that option as well.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
But I'm I don't.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
I'm not a huge fan of throwing stuff in trees
just because they can get caught.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm done with throwing stuff in the trees. I had
a line in my backyard stuck for six months and
it finally took tree trimmers coming over to get it out.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Yeah, you got the You got it down though for
a field day with the with the bottle of rocks
in it.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
I think it was the bottle of rocks was a weight.
Now what I was throwing, okay, Yeah, what I was
throwing was the kong end up in the tree, and
I just hate it when it's not the right branch
and you try to pull it down, then you're pulling
other branches down. It's very it's very invasive.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Can give you solicited advice on throw lines, Sure, go ahead.
Never ever ever pull the weight and back up the tree.
Take either take the weight off so you just have
a loose line. Okay, pull the line all the way
down so you're not getting that weight, because what happens
that weight swinging and as it gets shorter and shorter,

(17:17):
it swings more and then it wraps around the tree
branch and it's never coming down. Never ever pull the
weight end back up.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
That's a good points pull.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
Always either take the weight off and the knot or
just pull all of the line down and and throw it,
because guarantee you you will get that weight caught in
a tree as well.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
I think happened in my backyard is I have the
carabiner and while it was spinning, it somehow looped and
clipped onto the line. When you sense it down, it
was just not coming out. It was just not coming out.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
We were able to move it though to a different branch.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Right, Oh, well, this is one of the one that
was stuck in my backyard for six Yeah. Yeah, what
I did when it got stuck in that tree, I
looped the line around me and I just started walking
and just leaned into it and just leveraged it. And
I hear it a pop and then that thing slapped
me in the back. I was like, God, dang it.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
And at your house, that's fine if you get a
rope stuck in a tree, like no big deal, Like
it's up there, it sucks, but it's fine. At a
state or a national park or a national forest. These
are these are preservation areas. We want to leave no trace.
So having lines caught in trees, I.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Had a ranger at a don't leave no trace. Yeah,
what's the park above you, Mike, about forty minutes north.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Off the State Highway forty.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Boggy, Yes, boggy. I had a fort boggy ranger come
out and help me get a line out of a
tree one time. Yeah, so I'm completely Did.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
He give you what far afterwards?

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Nope, He's like, better luck next time.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
Snip snip yep.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah. So Paul, let's let's come back to you here,
because you got a heart out coming up you. You
went on the road twice in last month. You went
to Huntsville Ham first and then the following weekend, not
even the following weekend. In the middle of the week,

(19:30):
you flew out to Japan.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
I worked the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday after Huntsville, and then
Thursday got back on the flight to Actually, no, I
took a day and I was supposed to go Thursday.
I took a day, so I missed opening day of
Tokyo ham Fair on Saturday because I left a day later.
But I was supposed to go Thursday. So that way,
Josh didn't have any competition with my live stream in

(19:54):
the morning.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Run It Run It, I totally say full bore it.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
That was funny though, So I I showed up Saturday
evening and then I went to Tokyo him for just
Sunday morning and just live stream that day, and then
Bullet trained to O Soccer for that Icon factory tour.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
On Monday and Ice. Yeah, did they let you film that.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
As I as I expected inside the factory. No, I
did get some pictures from another guy that was there
of our static icon hats and static shoes and robe
that we had to wear when we go in.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Anti static okay, anti.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
Static, yeah, not static. It was pretty cool. Yeah, we touched.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
We're just walking around touching.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Another couple of months. Icon is gonna start having a
lot of warranty.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
All of a sudden, you see there's some static build
up on all of our chips.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Tank radio came through and nothing works. It sounds about right.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
He's over in the corner shuffling his feet touching stuff.
But yeah, it was really cool. But we I did
film and take photos of the little radio museum that's
in the headquarters I heard with which I assume has
all their radios. So that was pretty cool. All the
old I think it was like nineteen seventy six, the

(21:12):
first two meter SSB ICOM radio. ICM was the first
or sorry, yeah, ICM was the first foreign radio company
made Japan right to get a contract with the US
military in Vietnam. And so there was little oh images
and the agreement and the photo of shaking hands or
something out there, and it showed the two radios. I

(21:34):
can't remember what I've posted or not posted. I guess
I'm gonna have to look. I might just showed it
during the live stream last Sunday night, all the photos.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
That's awesome. Did you have a look at the ICOM's
new radio.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yeah, the so the was it fifty two hundred? Is
that the new one? Yeah? The new mobile?

Speaker 3 (21:55):
I don't so that one has Yeah, I remember the
new fifty one hundred or fifty one whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
Well, yeah, is that one they calling it? I want
to anyway. Yeah, So that one's not even close to
being made. And inside the factory, the seventy three hundred
was showing us. The seventy three hundred was still being made,
and he said it takes what did he say? It
takes seven seconds to change the process to the seventy

(22:23):
three hundred mark two. Isn't that weird?

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (22:27):
I think he said seven seconds because you're a line.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
So we were thinking because it's all robots and it's
I guess it's just software programming. I was expecting like
a day, right, you had to adjust this ad just
that he said, no, seven seconds. I was like that
blew me away, because you got you got the new plug, right,
the HTMI, you got the USBC. What else there was three?

(22:52):
I think there was three new things on the back.
I can't remember, but yeah, seven seconds.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
So the robots as symbol all like the and buttons
and everything is that human assembled.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
So all the small stuff is assembled. Initially, the very
first thing where they put the board in, it's like
this squeegee that lathers the back of the board with
solder paste and then squeeges it so it's only in
the holes, I guess. And then he showed us parts
that are vacuumed in off of these tape rolls. They're
so I couldn't see him. He had three or four

(23:23):
in his hand and he's pointing to him. I don't
see him. He says, here, they're about a tenth of
the size of a hair and finally he moved him
and I could see him kind of in the light.
I don't know how machines do it. I honestly don't
get it. That small of a thing inside of an
automatic machine that, like he said, vacuums it into the
holes and then it heats the whole back and solders it,

(23:44):
and then it goes through a test to make sure
all the soldering is done, and then it goes to
actual people. They are about eight eight, nine ten people
that were actually hand soldering kind of the larger things, wow,
like the three point five MILI connections, the USB connections,
things like that. So, and then they go through tests.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Were they soldering? Because it takes me like a good
two minutes to make sure my one pin is fine.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Now here's what was interesting. Yeah, it's taken me a
while to learn how to solder again. But the interesting
thing was it was only females on the soldering line,
and so we were interesting. Yeah. Someone asked like, why
is it only women here? And the guy said, because
women can focus more for longer periods of time than men. Sure,

(24:31):
so yeah, so men sitting there doing soldering, yeah, squirrel,
So women can sit there and focus longer periods of
time than men, so they have women on the ones
doing those final soldering and connecting. The ones we were
watching was an HT I don't know which one, and
they were putting it together.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
But the nurturers we nurture so you can.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Sit there and focus.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
Yeah, but it was.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
It was fascinating. I wish, I wish we could have
recorded you're taking some kind of photos, but unfortunately no.
But anyway, and I show some of the photos of
all the ICOM radios in the museum.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
HM.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
No, that sounds like so much fun.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
What a treat.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, I would love to join y'all on the twenty
twenty six trip. I have two separate seven day cruises
that just fell on twenty twenty six. Yeah, I got
one for my family. I'll tell this story straight up.
I was planning my family's trip and I clicked on

(25:38):
your Cruises trying to find my memor I d for
Royal and I clicked on it and I got it,
and it said and a notification pop up you got
an up and coming cruise. I said, what cruise? And
I clicked on it and I said Alaska twenty twenty six.
I was like, oh, yeah, I did say yes to that.
So I'm going to Alaska.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
You forgot that you bought a cruise. Yeah, that's funny.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
You're bringing radio with you.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
I hope. Well, we'll see, we'll see. I'll probably try
to bring the G ninety gen ninety and n FED.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
That's cool. Ye've done.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
They're probably not going to drop you off at a
at a PODA.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Location, right, Yeah, that's that's why I'm like, maybe I
don't know, but I usually do bring a HT with
me on the boat so I can listen to the
marine traffic, the local marine traffic and this listen coming
into the Harbords and things, and that's cool. But other

(26:39):
than that, when I'm at a place I can operate.
When I was went down to the US Virgin Islands,
I did transmit them five to two and see if
I can find anyone to hear anything.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
But I was thinking for your lastic cruise, that you
go like to Seattle or something and then take the cruise.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yes, we're leaving from Seattle. They stay being three hours
at night in Canada for one port and then leaving.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Because I'm wondering if you could go up like the coastline.
Just look up the coastline for repeaters, all Star repeaters
or you know whatever kind of repeaters, and see if
you'd be able to hit it from the water.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
You probably could. However, that be transmitting on a boat,
and you can't do that without permission.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Oh okay, yeah, I didn't know if.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
The boat you're not allowed to. But a majority of
the major cruise lines now have two way communication like
ham radio and some even list gmrs and frs is
not allowed on the boats. Oh wow, yeah, so some

(27:48):
of them. Some people have ruined it for all of us.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
That's usually how it is.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
All right, I'm when I set out of here, Audios, Paul,
I have fun on next meeting.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
Let me give you one one quick question to Mike,
see if he knows what I'm going to be soldering.
It's three little devices.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Well if your green screen would stop freaking.

Speaker 4 (28:14):
Oh well, it's in metal bags too.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
But I see a bunch of resistors.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
So you made a video on it to rewire something.
You were one of the.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
MP the uh, the amplifier the m Yeah.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah, so that's my project this week. So between your
video and I forget the guy that did the first two.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, are you going to be recording this for us.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
Well, I'm not going to record that because there's already
like three or four videos on that, but I'll record
connecting the you know, soldering, the three point five billion
everything for my seven o five.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
You should you should do it, You should do it.
You might run into a situation someone else is looking
and answer.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
For yeah, so, but I appreciate Mike's video, and then
the other guy's video and someone else, I forget Josh
or someone else did it too. But that helps a
lot when I can reference a video because I don't
know about this kind of resistors and I don't know
how to do that stuff, so instructions.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
That's why I'm not live stream it, because the magic
power of editing make look like you know what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Look how good I did. It took me seven hours,
but I made a video in twenty minutes.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
You will, you will go through several of those? You
get at least I did.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Yeah, that's I got a pack of twenty, like twenty
of those. Yeah. Anyway, gosh, all right, thanks guys, good
talking to you, man, Paul, Take it easy, Paul.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And then there was three yes, so is it your
first time in Alaska. Yes, okay, that will be my
first time. I haven't been to Alaska. Alaska's onl my
bucket list, also Antarctica and Australia. I just like to
travel the world one hand, run hand fast at a time. Well,

(30:14):
frenchis frogging should be on our list to go in Germany.
I know I said that wrong, but you know what
you meant.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Yeah, yeah, I would love to go to Germany, even
without a ham Fest. I would love to go. Yeah,
my visit my roots.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Your roots.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Dalhofer is slightly German.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
If you didn't know, ah, I got lapped in. That's French,
we think. Think then then on my mom's side, I
am Maltese, first generation Texan and American.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
But so well, we were talking about to parks, and
I'm jealous of you, Mike, because, like Paul, my closest
park is forty minutes to the south of me, and
I would like to go hiking and set up an
antenna and have a place to sit. But all the
hiking trails around my state park don't have a bench.

(31:19):
There's one that does, but it's just tree canopy all
the way around it, and it makes it to set
up an antenna extremely difficult, and I tried it twice
and not it's not good. So I might try to
find like a log somewhere. There's also Dora bike trails
I hiked a couple times in my younger days, which

(31:42):
was fun, but there was no place to also sit down.
And you don't want to set up an intent or
anything across that bike trail because those guys are flying
down that trail.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Dude, I set up an antenna across the trail all
the time. Yeah, yeah, so I.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Got the So is it going perpendicular or online?

Speaker 3 (32:04):
So I'm at Huntsville State Park at my forest gump bench,
which is like a three mile hiken on the other
side of the lake, and right behind the bench there's
a tree where I hang the feed point of the antenna.
And then well, there used to be trees on the dam.
They cut them down because they were doing inspecting on

(32:25):
the dam. But I would bring my mast and it
was across the trail and the trails only you know,
five feet wide whatever five six feet and it would
go across the trail and then I would put the
mast in this tree and it was high enough to
where first off the wires twenty six cage, so you're
probably not going to see it anyway, But it was

(32:47):
high enough where people could just pass underneath it, and
no one even knew it was there until they saw
the radio dork playing with his radio.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
But do you have people mountain biking and flying down
that path with a bunch of curves.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Up?

Speaker 3 (33:04):
It's a straight, yeah, trail at that at that point,
so no, there's not any curves or anything.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
But I I set up across a trail that was
in between the parking lot and the lake, not even
fifty yards orange wire and it was eight feet up
in the air when it crossed the trail. And this
guy comes with long fishing poles, stops, looks at me,

(33:32):
looks at the wire, looks at me, looks at the wire,
then starts walking. His fishing pole catches the line and
brings everything down. Then he's stunned.

Speaker 5 (33:41):
He goes, oh, I was like, you word, you saw
all this? And then he just kept on walking. I
was like, get up, get out of here.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Absolutely, But yeah, I mean I try and be mindful
of where I'm at. And because you, I mean, I know,
the second you put up an antenna, people are gonna
why literally in the middle of what's that what's that
National Park? Southwest of here? Southwest the National Park. Yeah,

(34:22):
me and Ryan were there. We're literally the middle of nowhere,
and I set up my DX commander, and all of
a sudden, these hikers walk in and they're like, can
we walk through here? And it's like, right where the
radio field is. Meanwhile, the paths are on either side
of it. They did not need to walk through my
antenna at all to get to where they were going.

(34:43):
But I mean, at least they stopped and asked, is
it okay if we walk through here, literally the middle
of nowhere. Second, I set up that antenna.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
How about what We're on the beach for one of
our activations down the Galveston Island. You set this, You
set your d X commander up and all its radios
the farthest away that you can get from the waterfront
behind our tents, and this sand is deep sand that
you've got to trench through. And I don't know where

(35:12):
a mother comes with a wagon which just rolls right
across all your radios.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
We had the antenna closer to the to the water
at that point. Okay, But yeah, the second we set
it up and I think that I don't know, maybe
we flagged it, maybe we didn't. I don't remember. But yeah,
same thing, Like she had this like trolley that she
was dragging behind her right through the radio field, and yeah,

(35:39):
we had tents and stuff set up, and it's like,
how do you not see all this? So yeah, people
don't care. I mean, if if life in customer service
and retail sales has taught me anything, thank god, I
don't do it anymore. People do not care at all.
They only care about themselves.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, and let me tell you this story. Down at
DFW Airport, it was up for me. There is a
little park called Founder's Plaza. It's at a north end
of some of the runways that you can go park
your car and they allow the public just to watch

(36:20):
the planes come in and land. And they have a
speaker system ran where you can hear the tower traffic
giving clearances for planes to come in and everything. And
it's literally horizon to horizon uninstructive views because you were
at the north end of a runway. Guess what, guy

(36:41):
thought it would be a pretty smart idea to set
up and get ready for antenna paths there or a
satellite path. I did well. I took out my arrow
and antenna tripod that I had the intendant mounted to
the set up the cameras, and not five minutes an
officer came by and got out of his car and

(37:06):
I was like, Oh, he's just going to come talk
to me whatever, because I got stopped before at parks
and other things. Just do the ham radio speel and
he comes up, Hey, man, what's he doing. I was like, Oh,
I'm setting up for a satellite pass coming up here
in about five minutes and I'm going to try to
talk to a satellite that's coming overhead. He goes, Okay,

(37:26):
that sounds cool. Just for your information. They saw you
setting up here and they sent me to see what
you're doing. I was like, I can see why that
might be a problem, and he goes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
That's fine. That wouldn't bother me. I was just somebody
setting up some weird stuff in the middle of a field.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
H ed one of the heavily.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
Talk to him out.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
I got the short straw there.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
That nerd. He He drove off after that, but I
haven't set up there since. But it's one of the
only places here in DFW you can get almost complete
horizon view. I was like, oh, that just be a
great spot, and I did not think about I probably
should not do this after nine to eleven, anything.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
Wrong, there's nothing. Yeah, but what happened happened, and that's
probably the last time it lapted if it happens again.
So what when you can talk to a cop about
him radio and he'll he'll regret coming up to you
for the rest of his life NERD.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
So all these fun stories you get looked forward to do.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Oh, I know, I haven't had my first like if
we're the Wizards and the pedestrians and the Muggles, I
haven't had like my Muggle experience yet with Potah set up.
I mean the the for this PoTA, not for this.
The closest I should say it feels far though, is
like Bonham and Lake Ray, which is like as Paul
is saying, it's about thirty at least for me, thirty minutes.

(39:04):
So it's a little bit of a commitment to get
up there. But I have not, well, I guess my
first like experience there was doing my the soda in
Red Mountain three and people were like I was carrying
up a battery and they were like, what is that.
It's like this big old battery honestly looks very suspicious,

(39:25):
and so someone came up to me it was like,
what what is that? Like, Oh, it's a battery for
like radio stuff, and uh, they said they looked at
me like I was crazy and then kept hiking.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yeah, you're carrying a heavy battery up a mountain.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, we were all unexperienced and uh, it was definitely
not ideal for a soda, but we made it up.
There had lots of people walk by us. Only that
one person though, came up to me. That's what I
was holding. It was just a battery. But whenever we
set up the dipole, no one really bothered us, thankfully,
but they're probably just looking at us weirdly. But no

(40:02):
one came up and really disturbed us, which was really
it was cool.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Have you ran across Yeah, have you ran across Adams
K six arks channel?

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Think what's his channel name?

Speaker 1 (40:21):
K six r K. I think that's kind of.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
It, just search K six K.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yeah, he is a fellow I'm no longer search and rescue,
but he's a fellow search and rescue brother. He does
mountain certain rescue and he will hike up a mountain
with his three day pack and a full radio set
in a day and spend three days up at the
top like it's nothing. Three days. Gosh, he's insane. I

(40:53):
got pictures of him being dropped off by the army
in the chinooks on the mountaintop on time. I was like,
you're so jealous of you.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
He's really perfected the small compact, lightweight radio station as well,
Like he builds little CW transceivers into Altoid's.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Tins and and your CW key.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Well he has like a capacitive CW key built onto
the altoids tin. But he's also hiked up a mountain
with a seventy three hundred as well. So yeah, he's
set up Baggy's and definitely a channel to subscribe to
if you're into portal radio.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
He's a great guy.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Especially how often as I go to Colorado, I'm definitely
going to reach out.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Go ahead, oh oh, I go there multiple.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Times a year, summer, fall, winter, skiing all that, and
so sodas there plenty around there, and I right now
I'm on the hunt for my first age of radio.
Right now, I'm loaning two radios, the sixty two hundred
and the eight ninety one, and I'm just trying to

(42:07):
really really research what i want next for my first
HF radio because I don't have the capability of buying
two radios, like one for soda and then one for
more general use. So I'm being really picky. I've seen
so many recommendations for the G ninety, but something about
it just isn't bringing me immediately to it for wanting it,

(42:29):
because I think it's just going to be a supplemental
radio to maybe my main, and I'm looking for a
main right now because I just don't imagine myself buying
two radios within the next six months at this time.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Is it all bands mic or is it just HF?

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I believe it's just HF three.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, yeah, but it's fifty watts and compacts. I think
it's under.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
So in terms of they don't make them and wait,
yeah they do, they do.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
In terms of physical size and weight, the G ninety
and the eight ninety one are not that different between
the sixty two hundred and the eight ninety one. I
personally would tell you to get an eight ninety one
because it's a hundred watts, yeah, and ten of tuners
are way overrated, way overrated. I almost never use them.

(43:29):
I just use resident antennas. Although you have that chameleon,
so you might need a tuner which sixty two hundred has,
but it's only ten watts if you have a battery
connected to it. I think so if you're planning on
doing a lot of soda, which in Texas doesn't really
exist so much in Colorado, the sixty two hundred or

(43:50):
some QRP radio would be great because when you're on
top of a mountain, you have to think and don't
fall into the trap where people say, oh, if you
want to run QRP, just turn the power down, because
that's yes, you can, but that is not why QRP.
They Hunter wat radios draw more current just sitting there

(44:12):
being on. They're generally heavier. If you're using a hunter watts,
you'll need a bigger battery, which means more weight. So
for like hiking and especially going up mountains, ounces are pounds.
But being that the majority of your time is still
here in Texas and you're if you're doing portal radio,
it's going to be parks on the air. Ninety one. Okay,

(44:35):
that's my two cents.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
No, I have the six sixty and then eight ninety one,
and I just kind of lean more towards of like
if I were to purchase one of them, but it
would be the eight ninety one, just for it's all
around general practice and its size. Yeah, into resonant antennas
because I need to research that and what those can

(44:59):
offer me.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
It's just I'm learning about tuners.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
When you general yet, it's all right, go.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Ahead, it's all right.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
The resident antennas is just when you build the antenna
and you just tune it down to the closest one
you like it for that band, and just cut it
there and then you don't have to use your tuner ever. Again,
that's what I love.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
That's a very oversimplified explanation of that. But so for
a wire antenna, you're gonna want a forty nine to
one transformer, and if you cut that and it's resonant
for forty meters because of harmonics, it's going to naturally
be resonant on seven megahertz, fourteen megahertz, twenty one mega

(45:44):
hurts and twenty eight megahurts, So forty twenty fifteen and ten,
I started making linked and fed halfwaves because number one
pac Tenna didn't make their antenna a forty meters, so
I just added a link to add another ten meters
a wire to make resident on twenty. Thus the linked
and fed halfway was born. But now because I want

(46:06):
like twelve meters and seventeen meters and thirty meters, which
are odd harmonics, they're not going to be resonant. So
I just when I'm making the wire, I just start
with the highest frequency and I make a link for that,
and then from that link I lengthen it more. So
that's how I do it now. So like I have,

(46:27):
I haven't done it to all my antennas, but I've
got antennas and fed halfway specifically that our resident on
forty thirty twenty seventeen fifteen, twelve and ten meters.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Wait when you say you link your wires, like do
you do? You just link them on to make them
longer shorter.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
So there's.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Do it, Mike, do it, Mike.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
He's grabbing something. Yeah, it's a nice bag.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
So I use.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Let's see if I can.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
And that's the gigaparts explore bag use tank it checkout
and get more points. Hey, I had to say it.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
So I use little s beaners. I use smaller ones
now than what's on this particular antenna. But this is
a pac Tenna forty nine to one and fed halfwave,
and I'm trying to unravel some of this wire so
I can get to a link here and fill dead air.
Here we are so, and I've done videos showing how

(47:36):
to make these, So that's the link there. So we
have strain relief with these two loops here. And then
these are little banana plugs. So if I unlink that section,
I've physically shortened the length of the antenna, thus making
it so this is the twenty meter section, and I
link them at twenty meters because sometimes I'm at a

(47:57):
place where I don't have sixty six feet of space
to put out the full forty meters, so I can
just unlink and take this wire off and then just
run this forty meter or excuse me, this twenty meter
section up the mast or up a tree or wherever
so by. But you can make links for all the
bands you don't really need to, Like, I don't make

(48:19):
a link for ten meters because ten meters is a
harmonic of twenty meters, so when I have the twenty
meter section extended, I can get twenty and ten.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
And no tuner. Yeah, a tuner is just another thing.
Like if it's built into the radio, that's great, it's
good to have. But if you know how to make
an antenna, and you know how to make an antenna resonant,
you never need to use a tuner. You never need
to bring a tuner because like with the eight ninety one,
you'd need to bring an external tuner, which means more weight.

(48:58):
You need to bring another coaxial jumper to go from
the radio to the tuner, and then a coax to
go from the tuner to the antenna. You need another
You need a power cable for the tuner, unless unless
the tuner has a built in some of them have
like a built in battery. But yeah, for the most part.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Oh, here's the I would have liked to avoid the
expense and the complications that a tuner brings with just
pure space and being portable and moving around.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Yeah, I mean they're nice to have because you can
if the tuner is good enough, you can just get
a piece of wire like just any any length of
wire and tune it up so like you know, if
there's an emergency, you can literally just I mean I've
taken my G ninety out and just connected it to
random objects found in the wild and made contacts. But

(49:56):
the Gen ninety will literally tune anything. It's amazing, and
I suspect the tuner in the sixty two hundred would
probably be just as good. But having a resonant antenna,
even like the seventeen foot whips are going to be
just as a vertical and some counterpoise or ground radios

(50:16):
rather is going to be a good resonant antenna. And
when they're fully extended, why is that on there? You
get you get twenty meters and then you can shorten
it for all the higher frequencies.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
So yeah, yeah, cool. Thanks for showing me that you bad.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
The thing that he claims he made and the first
one ever to do I did.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
I did, And this is it. Actually, this is the
antenna all those I changed the wire because the pac
tena comes with polystealth wire which is black and you'll
notice this is you I just like the high visy
yellow stuff. This is soda beams wire twenty six gage
so that's just what I like to do.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
But yes, yeah, once you gets used to and having
fun soldering, there's a bunch of infed kits out there
you used to buy and or make your own, and
pretty easy to do. I got a whole handful of
uh in said halfways I've made for PoTA activations and
it's fun. I'm probably going to be building one here
soon after I finished setting up my bill bench in

(51:22):
its new location, so I'm looking forward to be doing that.
I just what kind of change the subject a little bit?
What lights do you have, Mike? Like lights, studio lights,
studio lights, because I bought some newer studio lights, but
they're small and I don't think they're throwing enough light.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
I don't have any studio lights on me here at all.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
What's lightning from the front end, because you got a
good face, not back lighting front lighting.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
I have two floor lamps here on either side that
have five light bulbs in them, so I've got ten
light bulbs on either side. That's just what light up
the room, and then I have another one over there.
I like a lot of light, so like I don't,
I don't do this for studio lighting, per se. I
just like a lot of light and then it's off

(52:16):
right now. But the fan has a light. So there's
a lot of lights. But I do have studio lights,
but they are on my workbench over there.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Yeah, that's that's what I'm trying to set up right now,
the studio lights for the work bench that lamp there.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I have three of those in this room. So there's
crap tons of lighting here. But those are they're twelve
volt USB powered LED lights and they have a remote
control so I can just do that and they're they're

(52:52):
plugged into there's a power supply on the workbench, so
that just lights up. When I'm filming over that. That
lights it up.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
It lights it up really well, so yeah for it.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
And then I have another studio light that's like a
floor light thing that's big and bright.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, so yeah, I need to get bigger LED rays.
It looks like it for the studio lighting. Up at
my desk, I have the desk clamp lights with the
this irregular light bulb in it, and then I took
a coffee filter and put over it to diffuse it,
and then a Christmas tree footstep to turn them both

(53:35):
on at the same time. So it's below my desk.
I step on that and the two lights come on.
It works. Yeah, but I'm trying to get that set
up now and also clean out that my other room
to set it up as a office for my job.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
Job.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
But it's been fun trying to get all that set
up and going. We also have this one that's huge.

Speaker 3 (54:04):
Well, I'll usually set this up by the work bench
or have it in front of me when I'm doing
like face on shots. This one, this one like changes
color temper well, actually the ones of my bench change
color temperature and stuff too. This goes up to fifty
six K. So this is this is a pretty awesome light.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Awesome noting this is studio lighting just from the topic list. Yeah,
I can't wait to get that up and going because
I got another build or two of Infant halfways to
do put those together, and I'm looking to do I

(54:43):
might just buy a random solder kit online just to
practice soldering. And I really need to practice soldering wires
directly together because that's where most of my code joints
happen and I have the most issues with that, particularly
particularly take and the main antenna cable and soldering it

(55:04):
to the B and C connector. I just lose so
much heat off the copper wire and I just never
get a good contact there. And most of my intent
is when they fail.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Is that point, Well, you're talking splicing and splicing wire together.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Or splicing or putting on the B and C connector
that has that half cup that you put the wire
on and you try to solder to.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Oh yeah, that part's not too hard. But the look
at Lineman splice, that's like apparently the best splice that
you can do for just slicing, splicing two pieces of
wire together. I've watched one hundred videos on it. I've
tried it a hundred times. I still suck at it.
But that's the way to do it, I'm told, so

(55:47):
doing that right now. So what are your future Hamm
radio plans? L I looked at it.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Join my first hand fest in October. There's a Hemphest
and art More, Oklahoma, which is about an hour and
a half from where I'm at in Anna, So that'll
be my first hand fest. Hanry do Crusader I think
is going to be presenting, so look to meet him
in person. But I'm going to experiment with apros. I
saw your video mic and you actually commented back, You're like,

(56:17):
APS is.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Just like garbage, but is it ironic?

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (56:25):
So I probably put a video on that, just setting
it up on the five ten for anyone who's interested.
And yes, that's what I have planned for now.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
So you definitely need to get out to Huntsville next year.
It will be fun. And if you want any of
the other big ham fests, Orlando Dayton, if you want
to see thirty thousand people at a ham Fest, and
actually I think it was thirty seven last time last year.

(56:56):
Last I heard the count.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
That was such like an underground popular hobby. It's something
you would think that no one would be interested in,
and so you start digging in. It's just it's everywhere.
After you kind of jump into it more. And that's
incredible that there's almost forty thousand people going to a
convention for HIM Radio in Florida.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
They're Dayton, Dayton, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Yeah, that's Ohio. Yeah, that's the HIM.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Orlando still has. I don't need numbers, but probably over
twenty thousand, yeah, yeah. And people from all over the
world come to these things. It's awesome. It's amazing and
as you get you know, as you get more into
the hobby and you just start meeting people over the air,
and you kind of develop these relationships with people you've

(57:48):
never met in person. These hamfests are a great place to,
you know, actually meet them in person, and it's it's
just it's it's awesome, it's so much fun.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
My question, then, is how how does ham radio get
more into the general public? Because I heard it from
my husband, who heard it from a friend. Is it
just you hear it from a friend of a friend
a friend, or did you guys see something promoting it?
Like what when was the first time you heard the
words ham radio. I know that's probably long story, but

(58:22):
for me, it was my husband to tell me about
it because they wanted to communicate via blinds whenever they
were out hunting.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
My dad's been a ham his whole life, so I've
known about ham radio my whole life, but I didn't
get into it. I got licensed when I was thirty six,
so nine years ago, and I was reading an article
about the Oregon standoff. It was this kind of farmers
first the government kind of thing over over a land dispute,

(58:51):
and the farmers were using these these cheap bufang radios
for communications. And I'm a big gun guy and kind
of like, I'm not a prepper, but I understand. So
I'm reading this article and I'm like, I can get
a Ham radio. I know what that is, and I
can get one for.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
To many silencers? Do you have none?

Speaker 3 (59:09):
Zero?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (59:11):
So I went on Amazon and bought a UV five
R and bought a book and read that and took
my task and passed. And it has consumed me ever since.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
Me me.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I got into it the adjacent over a decade ago,
and he's He's the one to blame for all this.
I wanted to do on storm spotty for the area
and then get involved with the National Weather Service and
eventually I want to do storm chasing, and then part
of a lot of that is Ham radio. And I

(59:47):
got my license. In the first five years, it just
been a license. I was just a technician playing on
two meters four forty. But there's so much aspect you
can do on that just im not just talking on repeaters.
You got art in, you have satellites. You can do
a moon bounce part of the technician band if you

(01:00:07):
wanted to. It's hard, but you can do it. And
then HF every year going out of field Day, which
is something you need to do, go to a field
day event and just sit on field Day.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
This year, but I didn't know what the heck was
happening around me. I just see these towers up and
I'm like these big old go boxes and I'm like,
what is happening? And someone said and it's field Day.
I'm like, what does that mean? But it's like, oh,
it's like a national day or a worldwide day where
everyone like it's supposed to test how fast you can
set up and how many contacts you can make. But yeah,

(01:00:41):
I tested on fiel Day this year, so I'll look
forward to next year. It's being more involved.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
M h.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
It's a fun event.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Frank you mentioned field Day, yep.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
And then then that finally got into HF and loving
everything is. But amateur raid is a hobby of hobbies.
You can never get bored. If you get bored one aspect,
you can get interested in another and just go off
in another complete different direction. We got all the digital modes.
We got digital modes on two meter and four forty's

(01:01:12):
excuse me. We have ft A and JSA and there's
just so many different aspects of this hobby. It's just
so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Yeah. FT eight is actually on my shortlist as far
as diving into next. Mike you asked me what I
was doing next on That's definitely in my mind right
now is exploring that FT eight.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
It's fun. I like to do it at night when
we're all burnt out of talking on the radio, while
we're just sitting around the campfire and you're just still
in the mood to do more amateur radio, but you
don't feel like talking on the radio, then you just
pull up the computer and just hang out with your
friends and click a button every minute. Ye.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
Cool, But there's a lot of contacts on FT eight
that you might not be able to make, oh yeah
on voice or even CW because it's it's so a
f fishing. It decodes so down into the noise. So
and like Frank said, like a lot of times I
don't feel like talking, but I want to play radio,
so I'll just s off FT eight and see what
I can get, especially like eighty meters FT eight at night.

(01:02:15):
It's so much fun. Like I've gotten just random islands
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on eighty meters
ft eight in the middle of the night, and it's
like it turns into a geography lesson because you've never
heard of that place before, Like, what the hell where
is that? Yeah, you pull up Google Maps and you're like, no.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
Crap, you look up the guys grab that GUS.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Radio and yeah, it's it's it's awesome. So it's just
another thing to do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
It's great, it's it's fun. I enjoy it. All Right,
we're kind of at the top of the hour. I'm
gonna go ahead and wrap up here. We'll just go
around the room, starting with Mike Man, where can we
find more about you and what's coming up on the channel?

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
Well, we already talked about it. That new bag, that's
that's That's where I'm at on what day is today? Wednesday?
When we're recording this, So yeah, Ham Radio Tube on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Thank you, Mike or or or por.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Trinds get early access and they get video uploads there
so they don't have to watch them on YouTube. You
can go to Patreon dot com, slash k and I'm
already radio stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Nice. Well, thank you for joining. Mike hell, where can
we find more about you? And what's coming up on
the channel?

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
You can find me on Instagram or YouTube on my
channel called She's on Frequency. I'm currently studying for my general.
I should be testing for that mid September and get
on the AHF bands all day every day when I
get that general. And as far as video upload, I'm
not I haven't recorded anything yet, but I hope to
explore FT eight and APRS with the five ten.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Well, thank you for coming on. I'm looking forward to
you to be a regular contributor to this and thank
you for hanging out. I'm Frank Tank Radio. I'm not
gonna yell again it's too late. Coming up on my
channel this month, I am gonna be streaming every Sunday

(01:04:11):
on Jason's time slot at seven pm Texas time, and
we're gonna be talking about youth on the air. We're
gonna be talking maybe about death Con and then we're
gonna have another Cigar Social at the end of September.
So I can't wait to get all that. If you
listen to this point, I'm gonna go ahead and tease

(01:04:32):
the new pre order only item is gonna be up
in the next week or two and it's gonna be
the sixteen ounce beer pint glass with the green bottom
tank radio branded and only be able to get it
through the pre orders, So once that is open, it'll
be open for pre order for only a month and

(01:04:52):
after that I order those out and send them out.
So I can't wait to get that preorder done. Thank
you to everyone who's listen. Thank you to my Patreon supporters,
Thank y'all for hanging out with me tonight, and as always,
go forth and conquer. Say bye y'all, bye everybody, goodbye.

(01:05:16):
Thank you to all my Patreon supporters. You can support
me on Patreon, there's a link in the description below.
And to all my tankers out there, go forth and conquer.

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