Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations
Welcome to the Everyday Ham Podcast, where three friends dive into the world of amateur (ham) radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.
From discussing what we're working on, current events, and lessons learned to sharing our gripes and off-topic banter, we bring a mix of fun, relatable conversations and radio expertise.
Whether you’re a seasoned operator or new to the hobby, join us for engaging chats that celebrate the quirks, challenges, and joys of being on the air.
Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations
From Scanner to Transmitter: How Everyday Hobbies Lead to Ham Radio
In this episode of Everyday Ham, we explore how everyday hobbies — from scanning police channels to using walkie-talkies with friends — can spark a lifelong interest in amateur radio. James (K8JKU), Jim (N8JRD), and Rory (W8KNX) share their personal journeys into the hobby, along with highlights (and regrets) from the recent Toledo Hamfest. We also talk storm preparedness, building your first antenna, and why welcoming new hams matters more than ever. Whether you're a seasoned operator or radio-curious, this one’s for you.
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All right, everyone. Welcome to episode four of the Everyday Ham Podcast. I'm James Mills, k-a-j-k-u, joined here by Jim Davis, n8jrd, and, of course, rory Locke, w8knx. So we've had the last month a lot going on, so I'll kick off to you, rory, first. What's been keeping you busy in the world of ham radio?
Speaker 2:So let's see we had. When were we, we all together last? I think one of the things we were all together last that was down in toledo, ohio, at the toledo amateur radio swap that was. That was a good time. I think we all had a good time walking around and seeing the things and talking to the people and buying what we needed to buy or not buying what we should have bought. How's that? What did you not buy, james? You want to tell us that story?
Speaker 1:So, to preface, we all went on spring break that's also partly why we haven't seen each other in a while so I was saving my Disney World money, but there was an FT-840 for sale. Jim, being the swell guy that he is, actually talked the gentleman down to a super, super good price?
Speaker 3:It was an excellent price, the FT-847 being the Earth Station, the satellite-capable setup, yes.
Speaker 1:And it's a radio I've been looking for for some time as well, and I regret that I did not pull the trigger. It was one owner with the box.
Speaker 2:It was clean, well taken care of. It was yours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I made a mistake, but we learn from our mistakes and, jim, I think you continued your being an addict of handhelds as well.
Speaker 3:Well, I was going to just say, you know, you saved your $480 on the 847 and you bought one dinner at Disney World.
Speaker 1:So it was probably worth it. In the end. I needed one pretzel.
Speaker 3:I don't know what you're talking about Continued my ham swap experiences with buying another handheld. Last time it was the Elinko MD5, which is my first DMR handheld. It was a very inexpensive one. I think I gave the guy $60 for it. Exciting, this time I got an Ilens, which is actually made by Redivis. But Ilens is some new brand that they're trying that uses some of the Motorola spec and styling. I think it's supposed to look like a more commercial radio. It certainly is built like a brick.
Speaker 3:It does feel nice in your hand. It's an Island's HA1UV and it is a dual band handheld. At the end of the show I think the guy had $40 on it I said would you take $20? And he said it's all yours. And I said, well, it looks pretty nice, I'll take it. And I did ask James before I picked it up. James, because he already owns one.
Speaker 1:I said James, which for the viewers on YouTube I can see I actually have one in my hand.
Speaker 2:It's a solid looking rig.
Speaker 1:Super durable radio. There it is, here's mine too.
Speaker 3:So, anyway, not a bad little handheld, and I was excited to get it. But I said, james, you got one. Is it worth buying for 20 bucks? He said, oh yeah, great buy, great buy. And I said it looks good, yep, yep, good, yep, yep, yep. So we get it home and, uh, turns out this is the story of all of the things that I got at toledo, by the way, with the exception of one that the programming cable, which is supposed to be included in the box, because it's a rather strange programming cable as far as cables go was not included. So I crafted one out of a credit card, a prolific 2303 chip, uh, that I tore apart from another cable and a couple of test leads from my shop, and it's the funniest looking cable you've ever seen. If you're watching YouTube, yes, that's a door card that I used to get into a Hilton three years ago. It worked. It took me seven tries to upgrade the firmware. It failed multiple times, but I can definitely say that, in the true spirit of ham, I crafted a thing and I made it work. So that was probably my most exciting buy.
Speaker 3:I had a few other misses as far as that was concerned. I bought a SureCom power and SWR meter for 2 meter 440. Thinking that I was going to get a power meter that would be reliable. I got it home and when I took the battery out of the back of it which, by the way, takes the whole case apart to get to it, the battery had exploded inside. It's another lithium battery story. Everybody that's been to a ham swap has been sold something that the lithium battery is bloated on. This one was bloated and exploded. Thankfully it didn't burn up the board. I pulled that out. It was a 14500 cell, which is a pretty standard AA size, but with four volts. I swapped that in and that's working.
Speaker 3:What else did I get from the swap? I bought an antenna switch from one of our local club members, which was funny. He had a table down at Toledo, so he made his way down there with his father and in doing so I thought I'll put it out in the backyard. But when I got it home and sat here for two weeks looking at it, I said there's no way that I need four antennas in the backyard, considering I live on less than an acre. So off that went to QRZ where I was able to sell it to a nice gentleman in Texas who I'm sure we'll find far more reasonable use for. So there was a couple of exciting things down at the ham swap in Toledo from me, rory how did you do?
Speaker 2:That's a big risk of the cable you made there. It's exceptionally easy to brick a radio when you're doing firmware, but I guess when it's a cheapy handheld it doesn't matter. I certainly wouldn't try doing that with, for example, motorola Apex series or something like that I would go find the real cable.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I came home with three good items from Toledo. I got a new antenna that's going to end up in the attic once I get the courage to go back up there For our listeners. I took a good tumble coming out of the attic a couple of weeks ago and took a spill Direct downward fall. Long story short, you scale a shelf to get up through the little attic door in the spare bedroom closet and the shelf didn't like you know whatever.
Speaker 1:You know there are better ways to get into an attic than scaling the shelf.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you something. Now that the shelf is gone and I can get the ladder right in there, it is much easier to get into the attic.
Speaker 2:At least you solved one problem the shelf will not be going back in the way it is. There will be a new shelf that can be removed, or a different series of shelves. I haven't decided yet. I like it. Since I am in a condo, my 2 meter 440 antennas and my HF antenna are all up in the attic. So a replacement antenna that I need to get up there here, probably later this week, I think I'm ready to do that. I did pick up a Baofeng handheld. I believe it's a UV21. I actually picked up two. I'm going to give one away to a friend and that was attractive because it does also do 220. And us and our friends are planning to use 220 to coordinate at Dayton this year. So I wanted to get an extra radio on hand for that and the microphone I'm using right now for this podcast.
Speaker 3:Which sounds great.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm glad. 80 bucks from a gentleman who basically said I like to play with microphones, I'll buy one, use it and sell it. And he gave me a good price. And here we are, so that was a good thing. A very cool thing happened as we were walking out. We had all done our thing and we're leaving and a gentleman says to us hey, are you guys from michigan and are you guys the podcasters which you know? That was? That was. That was a surprise, but first time ever first time ever.
Speaker 2:I mean, we haven't done that many of these.
Speaker 1:We don't have that many listeners but it's not bad for our episode.
Speaker 2:You know four right but here comes that tom k-r-8b chasing us out of the place and I wanted to give a shout out to Tom. Thanks for saying hello to us. That gave us a big smile the rest of the day, so very good. So something else that's happening in the world right now, especially if you're in Michigan or the Midwest in general. Lots of series of storms keep coming across. I think we're due for another series of thunderstorms through southern Michigan tonight. That's right. Northern lower Michigan has been hit profoundly with an ice storm that will not melt, essentially. Jim, I know your dad lives up there and you might be able to give a quick brief of some of the situation up there as far as that's concerned.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. Kc8 NTE. My father is a ham as well and he's up there in the midst of it all right now. What happened? Rory gave a pretty good synopsis there is.
Speaker 3:During the weekend we did have some storms blow through down here, but in the upper part of Michigan, where there was still quite a bit of cold weather happening, those storms meant sleet and that sleet stuck to everything that was around that was antennas, that was trees, that was bridges, that was power lines, and you can just imagine that as you add the weight of ice and it coats these types of structures, eventually they exceed their design expectations and they fail. And that is exactly what's happened. And if you've never seen the ice coatings that can occur because you're not in a cold area like us, you can definitely Google it. It's beautiful really. The trees look really awesome with it all coated, nice. But it is extremely hard on structures. It's extremely hard on vegetation. Dad lost numbers of extremely nice mature trees.
Speaker 3:The farm is a complete mess up there, so it's going to take some time to not only clean up the damage from that but also to get power back to many of those folks that were affected, including my father, which has been out of power. Now we're on Wednesday evening. He's been out of power for almost four days. He's, fortunately, a well-prepared gentleman, so he's on his generator. He's making do with the provisions that he had. He's hunkered down and I'm sure that he's just fine. We've heard from him each day, but it's been a really wild experience up there and there are many people up in the mid-Michigan and tip of Michigan, the tip of lower Michigan area, that have been impacted in very dramatic ways. So go ahead, rory.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was what I wanted to touch on is just a reminder to all of us, because we're all guilty of this. Right, we all have batteries sitting around the house that are not fully charged. We have generators that we haven't tested since the last time we had to use them in an emergency. But this is just a reminder just for everybody, to make sure your stuff is charged, make sure your generators start. People up north are looking to maybe up to two weeks without power. It's going to take some time.
Speaker 2:If you get online and look at some pictures of the devast mean power lines and poles are broken like twigs. I mean it's some serious damage. Also in that storm system, our friends at the Lapeer Amateur Radio Club out of Lapeer, michigan, took a full loss of their tower with the wind that came through and they posted online about their loss and I will say they were not asking for help, but basically the amateur radio community came circled around them, a bunch of people offered help and some of our other friends at the Central Michigan Emergency Group especially that is led by Fred W8FSM. They got them a spot on a nearby tower and got their repeater back on the air in less than 24 hours, so they're not planning. I don't think the new spot is their permanent home, but their repeater is up and on the air.
Speaker 2:That's one of those things. It's always a pleasant surprise. People reach out, people check in on each other and in that case they help them get their repeater relocated and back on the air. Always keep those things in mind. Make sure you've got a plan and a backup plan and a backup to that plan. I think that will keep you ahead of most.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you hadn't seen the pictures, that Lapeer tower was folded in half. Essentially right about the middle it failed and it bent back over on itself. It doesn't look like it caused any person-related damage, but certainly very much an equipment problem. It's awesome to hear, though, that they were able to get it back up so quickly. Depending on where those repeaters are located, they could be one of the linchpins of the community, right for hams to be chatting back and forth. I know if ours went down, I would certainly be missing it, so it's nice to hear that they were back up and running it under. You know, in short order.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that Lapeer machine has always been fairly popular up in that neck of the woods so I'm sure they were glad to get it. Get it back on the air. Another tower failure on the commercial side, uk HQ up out of Petoskey. They lost their 630 foot tower in the storm as well, so that came, that came. I was able to reach with reach out to a, an associate with one of the large networks up north who's in in charge of four or five tower sites for various television networks and all of his were fine. He wasn't able to get a link to his Gaylord tower but he figures that's because of the power outages and other problems at Gaylord. He wasn't concerned about a failure there but certainly a big mess for anything up there that the water and ice was able to freeze to. Just that little bit of weight just can't handle that extra weight and they come right down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, gaylord was for the most part shut down for at least the first two or three days. They called school off for the entire week. Of course, no power, no heat for the schools, slowly as they restore some of those major infrastructure things Big lines for fuel, of course, like Rory mentioned, being prepared and having a few extra gallons of fuel a good idea so that you're not running in and waiting in line and wasting time doing that. So, yeah, definitely take a look. If you're not from the Michigan area and it hasn't crossed your radar. It's very interesting news. It's sad news for many who are going to be majorly financially impacted from it and I expect recovery will carry on far into the summer, given all of the damage that has occurred out there.
Speaker 1:I know we'll be making a trip up north. And Michigan is used to some ice storms, especially this time of year, especially sleet. But again, as everyone has said, look up some photos, because this was this is unprecedented.
Speaker 1:Yeah, michigan's never really seen something like this. And then you add in the storms that rolled through more of the Detroit across Grand Rapids. So the west side of the state, lower left side of the state, across to the east side, there was a high wind. So it was a lot of different weather systems all at once and communities trying to respond to various situations.
Speaker 3:So as Rory said, be prepared. I believe the count in Michigan southern Michigan, non-ice related was over eight tornadoes touched down, many EF0s, so small tornadoes on the ground for only seconds at a time, but we did have a few EF1 tornadoes that came through, so it has been an extremely unsettling weather week to start our spring here in April. So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it's not a sign of how our summer is going to be storm-wise, because that'll make it interesting. And I did read this afternoon that the National Guard the governor of Michigan did activate the National Guard to head up and help out up north with some of the tasks. Because you have to think about those counties and cities up there. They are not big counties and cities, they do not have hundreds and hundreds of employees and within the first couple of days those guys start getting pretty tired and I'm sure they're glad to see the help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the linemen especially, are out there braving not only the storms but the extremely treacherous conditions on those lines, not knowing what status are I mean those guys are out there doing some serious hero's work.
Speaker 3:And the other big thing if you're not in tune with this is Mackinac Bridge was completely closed to standard traffic. They're, of course, escorting any emergency folks, like linemen, back and forth across the bridge with a police escort, because the falling ice from the trusses on the bridge and it's a suspension bridge, if you're not familiar with the Mackinac Bridge is the big enough pieces of ice to smash a car, take out your entire car, so you wouldn't want to end up in there. So it's a very, very serious situation even up there and right now they're not sure when the weather will break to the point where that will thaw to allow traffic again. Very unusual to have the Mackinac Bridge closed for this long a period of time. So many unprecedented events happening in this part of Michigan.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, with that, everyone stay safe out there, because we also know there's been a lot of weather systems going throughout the country as well. The storms we got also swept through the lower parts outside of Ohio and below as well. So everyone stay safe and be prepared. So with that, let's transition to our main topic today. So we wanted to talk about the launch pad to ham radio, and what I mean by that are what are the gateway? Drugs or hobbies that we all have seen or had that have brought new hobbyists to ham radio and amateur radio. So I know that some of the easy ones we can talk about are, of course, gmrs General Mobile Radio Service, frs handheld radios. Meshtastic has been a big one, but I'd be curious, jim, when you were starting, what really was your gateway into the hobby itself?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you two things here. First, I'll agree with you completely on FRS and GMRS being kind of a starting point, because even back in 2002, which is about the timeline where I got licensed with my tech the family was using those radios before Of course, we've talked about this a little bit in previous episodes which is to say, times were different then. Not everybody had a cell phone in their pocket that was capable of text messaging very easily, let alone T9 style where you had to tap nine times to get a word to come out of your phone. It was a lot different. So everybody was carrying those little FRS radios around. So that was what the family used. When we were together, we would be walking around places, whether they be field days, malls, being out in a city, and we would be using those to talk back and forth as a family, to rendezvous for lunch, to get together and plan where we were headed. So that's definitely one of those common, I think, starting points.
Speaker 1:And we should say FRS is Family Radio Service, so Unlicensed Radio Service. So think those bubble package wrapping radios that you can get at Walmart or some other store.
Speaker 3:Yep, and they do share bands with GMRS. Of course I'm sorry they do share frequencies in the same band with GMRS, so it's one of those interesting sort of crossover points for radio. But when I look at how did I get back into it more recently, amid all of the working from home and kind of being stuck doing things that you could entertain yourself with? I sort of found SDR radio, so software-defined radio, right, and it started with me thinking, well, that's pretty neat, right, I can buy a broadband receiver for 30 bucks off Amazon that I can plug into a USB port and I can scan from zero to a thousand megahertz. Like it's nothing, right, and what an inexpensive way to start again listening to what's going on on the bands. Right, and with the right antenna. And of course I didn't have the right antenna when I got one of these out of the box, right, it came with a little telescoping thing.
Speaker 1:It wasn't the mag mount on the cookie sheet then at that point.
Speaker 3:I mean that was one of the options, but no, I remember when I got it out of the box I bought the RTL-SDR, which is actually a repurposed the repeater's chatting with me, sorry, if you heard that it's a repurposed TV tuner chip, the RTL is, and so the RTL-SDR is a project that has really gained a lot of traction and it's an awesome general purpose SDR. So when you get it out of the package it comes with a little telescoping TV you know like bunny ear style antenna, and you can kind of tune that by pulling those in and out to whatever length and you can listen to different frequencies. And so I started doing that and had a lot of fun listening to AirBand right. We're just under the Detroit airport out here, 45 miles kind of west of the area where those planes come in, and so I was listening to them as they landed in right Like back and forth. You can scan from what?
Speaker 3:120 to 135 megahertz, oh yeah, Rory's got one on the screen here and you can listen to the plane chatter and those guys are funny. They're very to the point and brief, so there's not much to hear.
Speaker 2:But if you know what to listen to. I like how they operate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very to the point, brief, and so that kind of started me down the scanner path again, and I do credit the RTL-SDR as being one of those very strange little gateway drugs to getting back into radio in a much more serious way, because it's so powerful, right. You know, scanning doesn't require a license and so you can listen to a lot of different things. You could probably hear some of your dispatch emergency bands. You're not going to find the trunk stuff that requires digital or otherwise, but you're going to find a lot of like paging-type frequencies otherwise, but you're going to find a lot of like paging type frequencies. You can probably hear Rory will tell you the local locomotives coming through, the trains being operated on specific frequencies and you'll stumble across those things as you do. But where this all leads essentially is with the RTL-SDR.
Speaker 3:I was looking for something meaningful to do with it. I was like, okay, I've got this thing, what could I do? Right? And I started reading about NOAA weather capture and NOAA had orbited satellites many years ago now. These are old satellites, right, 15, 18, 19. But there's been many before those that project images. It's continuously scanning the weather and they have infrared cameras, they have visual cameras and they provide a really, really powerful way to kind of see how awesome amateur radio could be, or radio in general rather, could be, because you get those neat amateur satellite pictures. So it was the first thing that really got me back into it. I got really excited about hanging those budding ears out the window. I tuned them in a V shape, pulled them out to 137 megahertz give or take lengthwise I think that was 19 or 20 inches long and I had a 2x4 hanging out my window with a 10-foot pole erected up over my eave and I was listening to those satellites and the pictures were terrible because the antenna wasn't tuned up properly and I was using the worst coax cable from RadioShack 25 years ago that I had in my closet.
Speaker 3:But it was awesome to just start getting re-interested, start understanding what you could do if you had better equipment, if you understood the process more, if you understood the antenna more, and so I started thinking like, okay, what do I need to learn? How do I build a better antenna? And I started looking at what's a better satellite antenna, and that's where it led me, was I start to read about how do you build antennas, how do you get it, and then you naturally find this door opens and it's like, well, why aren't you just researching amateur stuff, right? So for me, one of the big things, the big transition things that got me back into it, was the NOAA weather capture. And if you haven't checked it out right, WX2image, which is the old weather captured app, is a really cool tool. It's basically, at this point, abandonware, but you can find a repurposed version of it that can be downloaded and used freely. And then sat dump is an awesome program that basically automates the whole process. So if you, if you buy one of these things, can find a place to stick an antenna out on your back porch, you can use sat dump and, while you're at work earning your keep, that thing's capturing weather images that you can check out on your way home, and you might put those into like a network folder and share them to a website, and then you could see them wherever you're at.
Speaker 3:So it's just an awesome tool, and that, for me, was one of the things that I got re-excited about with radio, and it led to me upgrading to general and meeting you guys in the South Mind Club.
Speaker 1:And the rest is history. So, Rory, what about you? What was your gateway?
Speaker 2:let's say so my gateway goes back to playing with a scanner in my grandfather's apartment every Sunday morning. So when I was fairly young, my dad and I had a routine we would stop by my grandpa's place in Wixom and say hello for about an hour. They would drink coffee and I would sit and eat a cookie and probably have a milk, because I wasn't having any coffee and I hadn't found coffee at that age. Nowadays I would have a lot of coffee with them. But my grandpa always had his toys around the house.
Speaker 2:He should have been a ham, and actually his older brother was, and I did know that it would have been my great-uncle Joe. I did know him a little bit but he was already in his 90s at that point so didn't really have a connection there, but I was aware of him and his ham radio hobby. Anyway, they liked their toys and my grandpa always had something, some little gadget or thing, floating around his place there and the one thing that he had was his little I think it was a 30-channel unit and police scanner, which I do have.
Speaker 3:It's stored away safely in the room with stuff over here. Oh, that's nice Room of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the fortunate thing about that is he was very, very strict about the 30 channels that were programmed in it and he had this little half sheet of paper with what was programmed in it and then which channel, and that's what had to be in there because he wanted to listen to what he wanted to listen to. But I was allowed to get out the police call book Radio Shack's Police Call, is that what it was called the green book and dial in whatever frequency I wanted to play with or listen to. And there was a section in there that talked about ham radio and they were generic ham radio frequencies, probably 146.52. And a few of those, maybe one. It wasn't localized. So I never really found repeaters until much later. And I was listening to I had a scanner on my own by then and stumbled upon a series of local Detroit area repeaters, mostly the smart 14714 out of the Troy and Royal Oak area, a couple other ones. Those are the guys that I would listen to and it was just fascinating to me to listen to these guys. So I always had a scanner.
Speaker 2:Eventually my dad convinced me that go get licensed and see. You know, he said the basic. My dad knew enough about the technician license that it was easy enough to get at the age of 17. And he encouraged me to do it and just try it and if I liked it I'd have it. If I didn't, you know, you just move on and I'm glad he did. But something that that led into for me shortly after I got licensed and I was part of the South Lion Club the first time I met some folks that were members of Civil Air Patrol and for those who don't know about that organization, it is the auxiliary of the US Air Force, primarily focusing on aerospace cadet programs and emergency services, and each state kind of has a different program depending on the needs. But as part of that they do have a radio communications program and there were two folks in the South Lion Club that encouraged me to come join Civil Air Patrol because they played radio. That's how it was sold to me. I'm still a CAP member all these years later and have done all sorts of other stuff, but that's a story for another day.
Speaker 2:But that kind of, as a little bit of a segue for a gateway for other people, what started happening there as I met more and more of the communications facing folks of Civil Air Patrol is. There was a guy, unfortunately silent, keynote Chuck Cook N8SN. He did an annual thing called Ham in a Day and that was extremely popular for the cadets. And the cadet program in Civil Air Patrol is youth 12 to 21. And you would get all these people kind of with the same story. Someone in their family had a scanner, someone in their family had a radio, their uncle was a ham, their parents run CB when they go up north, all these things they were interested in, and they would get little glimpses of all of us playing with CAP communications, which is similar but also not similar to ham radio. Again, another story for another time. But that became a gateway for all those people and a handful of those people as they've gotten older. I have bumped into them on a repeater here and there and it's super fun.
Speaker 2:So you get those organizations that are youth-minded, that have the component of radio. Boy Scouts does a similar thing. Our friend Frank on FADOM, another local member here. Both of his kids were Boy Scouts and he continues to be active in Boy Scouts, scouts on the Air events, and you hear about that too. Someone was a kid in the Boy Scouts and they were encouraged to get on the air and play with radio and suddenly they become a ham someday too. So there's all these avenues and a lot of it is just exposure. I think and that was my thing I was exposed to not necessarily ham radios but electronics in general, and I think that opened the door for me, and I see it doing the same for others as time goes on too.
Speaker 3:I have to comment, by the way, your scanner that had all of its channels programmed and very specifically, so it sounds like somebody I know U8KNX programmed and very specifically, so it sounds like somebody I know u8k and x.
Speaker 2:So my dad, my, both of my parents, both of my parents tell me I am extremely like, like my grandfather, of that, that and uh, I guess for for sidebar because why not, I digress all of my radios. So if you go back to the original scanner, I of course started finding repeaters and had to program at them in the scanner and that was a basic hundred memory scanner, handheld scanner, and I had all the public safety stuff in first from 1 to 19,. But all the ham stuff started at 21. And to this day, exactly how I programmed the scanner back in the mid-90s are how all my radios are programmed. The Southland repeater is still in slot number 21. The smart repeater is still in slot 26. And I could tell you those numbers exactly.
Speaker 2:So what happens if they take a repeater off. There's rules In my special brain here, there are rules. Let's hear them For example, anyone who has been a hammer on the Detroit area for a while there used to be a very popular repeater in Northville, the 14517, which was on top of the state hospital on 7 Mile and that was in slot 24. That was probably the most popular repeater in the metro detroit area um for three years and I left 24 vacant all these years until we brought up the uh the so the south lion, the south lion 440 machine has got slot 24 all these years.
Speaker 1:Wow, I didn't know you gave it now a prestigious memory it got 24, yeah folks, you don't understand how big of a deal that is for Rory to assign a treasured repeater. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I have other friends who make great fun of me for my programming scheme, but it works for me. I can find any radio you know whether I'm looking or any repeater, any memory in there, whether I'm looking or not looking, and it works for me.
Speaker 3:I have one more basic question on your memories here while we're talking about it, because I do think this is such a personal question, right? Every ham that's listening can relate here. Everybody does it a little differently. Everybody titles them a little differently. How many do you have and how do you title them? Do you use the call sign of the repeater or do you use a geographic location? I'd love to know.
Speaker 2:So I try to use what the repeater is called. A lot of repeaters have a name. For example, we call ours a South Lion repeater, so it says South Lion, but the Hazel Park Club repeater is called the Dart. So it's in there, the Dart. The Smart, of course, is in there, the Smart. It's basically what it is called. There's one on the far east side called the Echo I think that's when the lance cruise radio club operates. It's a, so that's what I go by if I don't know that it's either in there by the city or the call sign I was gonna say I would say name, name first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nickname for the city and then the call sign if I really have to okay, there's some weird ones in there, if I need to differentiate, there's some odd, odd quirks, but it works for me my biggest fear right now is rory will never be my friend if he ever borrows one of my handhelds or mobile radios, because I gotta tell you there is no rhyme or reason on how I ever couldn't take every channel.
Speaker 1:Oh god, I'll just go ahead and spin the dial or hit the scan until I find what I'm looking for couldn't do it how many do you have in your, in your, your machine rory?
Speaker 3:how many? 65 probably, I I mean they're not.
Speaker 2:The other problem is they're not exactly sequential because I do have, as time's gone on, I did start at one, believe it or not, when I started learning of different, so number one in my radio is not my most used repeater, sure, sure, which is bizarre to a lot of people um, and and there's some. There's some different rules to that. I say rules. Life is made up, there are no rules, but I say rules. There's some high numbers, my D-Star hotspot, all-star hotspot. They're up in the 80s, so they're kind of chunked together.
Speaker 3:I do keep some Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan stuff for travel. I love this because it's a personal question, but at the same time I always like to hear how other folks do it because it is such a daunting task to program a new radio, right.
Speaker 3:And so until you've got some format established, like how do I name it? What should I put into it, you kind of have a blank slate, and they're not useful. Until you put memories into them, right? Because when you're driving around and you don't have your phone with you, you're never going to remember what the frequency was. Well, rory might remember.
Speaker 1:I won't say you won't. Rory will remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some of us like myself, won't remember, so I need to dial it in right. And so for me I have probably 25 now that I've got and, like I said, I started doing this in the middle of June. But my first one is of course the South Hawaiian repeater, because that was the first place I talked and I've slowly geographically circled out from there with my numbers of memory. But I also have some strange ones, like my All-Star node is number 19th, because the All-Star node uses 433.900 with a 91.5 tone and it's number 19 in the memory. So I have all the nine thing going.
Speaker 3:20 is my APRS beacon, even if the radio doesn't support APRS, because I want to hear voice alerts. And 21 is my MMDVM node. So I've got some strange little quirks in mine as well. But I'm always curious to hear how folks do this, because I do say most folks buy these radios and then when they get to the programming step it's so daunting to think about that you just stop there and then you never do it and it won't serve you well until you sit down and put a few things in.
Speaker 2:They're all the same.
Speaker 1:Again. I'm the Wild West of programming. Every radio is different.
Speaker 3:James has no rhyme.
Speaker 1:But I mean Rory always makes fun of me because he says I'm never on the repeater. You're notater, you're not. I mean you're not.
Speaker 2:I mean there's, there's 21, there's, there's a subline repeater in slot 21, that's where it belongs 7 0 4 0, 1, 10.9 I mean, I still got to get the antenna on my roof.
Speaker 1:That that, by the way, will be a more longer video of the future here. We're not going to let rory get on a shelf and climb up on the roof but, we do plan on putting up a two meter 440 antenna here in the summer project.
Speaker 3:Summer project That'll be exciting to do Now that you know that James is chaos incarnate when it comes to radio programming and Rory is, I would say, like the mint level of programming and I'm somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 1:I don't know. We also learned Rory takes his operating tips from the pilots on their crisp, clean radio transactions.
Speaker 2:I like a quick radio transmission, no fluff, no extra, no carrying on. I can ramble. I guess that's kind of How'd you get into podcasting?
Speaker 1:I feel like this episode's turned into an expose of Rory.
Speaker 2:I don't shut up, that's how Well you guys talked me into it.
Speaker 3:We've now gone into his inner soul.
Speaker 2:You guys talked me into it. That's how we got here.
Speaker 1:We appreciate your color commentary. We also talked you into buying that microphone, so we're doing two for two.
Speaker 2:Oh it's very good, it's very good.
Speaker 3:Well, very good, james, anything new in your life, radio or otherwise, that is going on.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess from the back to the launchpad topic I'm not much different than you guys. Growing up I always had the bubble wrap FRS radios. I love those and none of my friends would ever play radio with me, and I was always upset. So my grandpa was a big CB-er. He loved his CB radio always had in the car. Never really, so maybe also Rory this is where I get it from Never really talking on the CB radio.
Speaker 1:However, I was always listening on the CB radio Also had the scanner. I was not smart enough to save that scanner and I don't even remember what I remember it was a black scanner, probably some Panasonic from Radio Shack or something around those lines.
Speaker 3:Realistic, probably. If it was from Radio Shack, You're probably right. Yeah, I wish.
Speaker 1:I would have saved it. I did not have the foresight for that. And then I always just liked radio and during COVID I was looking up, I knew ham radio existed. I always was interested in ham radio. I'm a big electronics nerd in general as well. I like building basic electronics. I've always been learning. I taught myself to program and things of that nature at a younger age. Big computer person in general, like most millennials I guess Most millennial nerds, I guess, is a better way to say that.
Speaker 1:And COVID hit was looking for something to do. I said you know what It'd be fun to start to get my license. I actually just wanted to start listening to two meter frequencies and get a handheld going. And I took the test and got my technicians and then I started to do more and more research and I just kind of got excited about building my own electronics, the kits that were out there, radio repair potentially, which I have not gotten into that. But that's something for my future and actually, jim, probably something you could help me out with in the future here from a training course, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:No, seriously.
Speaker 1:And I look forward to it. But I started to just study for my general. I got onto HF Radio. I found the South Lion Club, got a demonstration of Hoda and I was hooked.
Speaker 1:Just the ability to be mobile and to be talking around the world and different setups and each kit is different. Every person shows up with a slightly different variant, even how they set up their radios and the programming and what their target is. Do they operate digital, do they do sideband, do they whatever? And it's on and on and on and I love it. It's like an endless. It's a hobby within a hobby, within a hobby within a hobby, and for that fact it's fantastic. But it just goes back to finally someone will talk to me on a radio, unlike my friends in the neighborhood when I was a kid, because it wasn't cool and I guess I'm living my childhood dream a little bit, not to sound corny, but I do enjoy it.
Speaker 1:And also I would say the community is probably one of the better parts people don't really talk about. So Rory was saying you know the exposure to it and I really think that is the community building. You build friendships with people and you start to understand what they're interested in, and you know there's Louis N8LEK in our club as well. And you know there's Lewis N8LEK in our club as well. He always kind of makes fun of us for FT8 operation and we rib him about stuff right back. But you know it's talking about why we do things the way we do and having those relationships. That's pretty cool. And I don't really know if there's, you know, outside of sports. I don't know if there's really many other hobbies, not to compare ham radio to sports here.
Speaker 2:But I'm not sure there's really many other hobbies where you build that deep community which is, I think, important. You unlocked a memory for me with the FRS and friends on FRS when I was a kid and it's a complete chapter I skipped. We did have a series of us in my neighborhood growing up, which is not far from where I live now. We were all on FRS and there was a time where there were probably 10 or 12 kids in the neighborhood yakking on the FRS at 10, 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning, jeez, and we were all close enough, you know. And once in a while, you know, especially I remember Christmastime. We probably did this for a year, two years. Around Christmastime people get their Christmas presents and all these extra FRS radios you start getting random people on there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, there were a number of us that used the FRS around the neighborhood and had what well, I probably was aware of ham radio at that point. But what they didn't realize were big old round table QSOs on the FRS channels. That's funny.
Speaker 1:James, you mentioned go ahead. No, I was gonna say I need to Google it. I remember the FRS radios I even had at one point and I loved them were Jurassic Park themed and I should Google them. There were so many I know, but they were so cool and I just remember thinking they were the coolest things ever. I had some cheapy forever.
Speaker 2:And then I had Motorola came out with a line and I'm sure I could find it if I looked for it, but they looked like real radios. So I had to have that specific Motorola FRS. I probably still have one in the room of stuff, I guarantee I do.
Speaker 3:Our timing is impeccable because I remember when we got our FRS radios, my brother and I and I always thought it was novel because my grandparents lived here in Livonia, michigan, which isn't too far from where we all operate here in South Lyon, and folks were always on the radio. So you could pull up an FRS radio and there would always be something chattering across one of the 14-some-odd channels. Right, we got Audiovox FR-130 radios. You can look that up. It is an ugly little Audiovox radio. It's about what you expect Three buttons on it, a dial and a little stubby antenna. And those were in our Easter baskets. They had broken the clamshell open. One in each of our Easter baskets. Yes, we were still getting Easter baskets because my grandparents loved us.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with a good Easter basket here, let's not.
Speaker 3:Among the Cadbury eggs there were FRS radios for that particular Easter and I remember that was spring break. We were down, that was our little thing, and so me and my brother were running around the yard with those things and listening to folks, of course, all around the metro area as we were traveling, carrying those off, going to dinner with them, had them in your pocket everywhere you went because they were just the coolest thing at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, what's your take too on if you were to pick a gateway hobby and I know again, we talked about how this is a very personal experience it really is to what gets you in. But a lot of the push right now in amateur radio is how do we get the younger generation involved? And I do have two young kids and they make fun of their dad pretty regularly for being into amateur radio. But what do you think would be the modern-day gateway?
Speaker 3:That's a tough one. First, I'll pay a little bit of kudos to James, because James has two daughters and both of them are very science-tech educated right out of the gate. Both of your daughters are pretty experienced with that type of stuff, which think is awesome that you do with them. That's cool, but I think it's funny. At some point I bet one of them will do some radio stuff with you. I just think they're a little young still across our fingers.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna get my hopes too high here.
Speaker 3:You know, I think you've had a dream, but they come to meetings with james right and james and you make it fun. You know they don't have to do radio stuff when they're at the meetings, but I think just bringing them and exposing them to the idea of it and maybe that there's some community there, I think that's one of those things that it will mean more to them later on in life. They'll think about that, what you're doing with them now, and I think that's going to mean a lot to them later on. I think about those sort of formative experiences that I had with my parents and those are the types of things that you don't know you're making a lasting impact till far later on.
Speaker 1:And so I will say that Like us in the scanner a little bit right. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like Rory and his grandpa, right. That's one of those formative things that his grandpa had no idea at the time. He was having coffee with your dad, right, and they were sitting at the table, but you were learning something there and you made this strong association with him that still sticks with you to this day and I think that's really important. That's just how the mind works, I find. But how do we attract new folks? That's a tougher question. That I don't know. I think we're still trying to crack that, even in our own club here. But I do want to say out loud that being an inclusive club and being welcoming of folks that don't understand a darn thing about it but are curious is really going to be one of the things that continues to make this hobby continue to thrive.
Speaker 3:Right Is if you wall off the garden because everybody's too cool for school. Right, because I already got my license and I already know all the things. That is a huge turnoff to somebody that doesn't know. You have to have those folks that are willing to walk both sides. Right, I can be an extremely experienced operator, but I'm willing to sit down and chat about the new things that were fresh to me when I was new, that are fresh to you right now, and that fresh to you is like you just got your first bow fang.
Speaker 3:Bow fangs don't mean shit to me I apologize my language right, because I've got many other cool radios but I understand what they mean when we start out, right, it's so affordable. It gives you that opening to understand what these radios can do, and I think that's really important, right. And so you have to really think about, as we're trying to draw new people in, you have to go back to when you started and think about the things that were fun for you, that were interesting for you, and you've evolved over time, because you've spent a lot of time doing this, but those folks that are just starting haven't gotten that far yet.
Speaker 3:They're going to be there eventually, I imagine. But it's really important to put yourself in that person's shoes, I think To your point.
Speaker 1:don't smother the spark the spark is just starting. If they show up at a club meeting and they have a bao fang encourage them, That's's awesome. There's no such thing as a bad radio.
Speaker 2:I realize they're maybe not the best quality and whatever, but they're affordable. They get you started there. There is a bad radio okay, any radio that the person has the roger beep still turned on all right so if you buy a bow, fang let that be said yeah, we've got two different ones going on our local repeater. Yet I know who one of them are and at some point I'm going to have to be mean to the new guy and tell him to turn it off. And I haven't figured out who the second one is.
Speaker 1:But this is a silent warning. Let's turn off the Roger beeps.
Speaker 2:No, roger beeps.
Speaker 1:But I guess don't. I think the thing is there's no secret sauce. Jimmy already said this. There's no secret sauce, jim, you already said this. There's no secret sauce to get the younger generation interested in amateur radio.
Speaker 1:There's not I think we said it. Be present, be welcoming, don't smother the smirk. If someone loves their bow fang, let them love their bow fang. That is awesome and there's nothing wrong with that. Let them grow, let them go down their path and just help them along.
Speaker 1:And maybe you're right, my kid, going back a little bit, I'm sorry, but she is into FIRST Robotics and if you're not familiar, that's the school's build robotics to complete, basically, a robot platform from start to finish, from scratch and they build it to compete in a very difficult competition. So it could be picking up blocks and throwing them into targets or whatever it may be. If you haven't seen them, very challenging and very cool. And these high school kids at that level because that's the top level of first, I mean they are impressive kids. But she loves that and I think, if you know, I'm always going to be supportive of her, of course, but if I can help her develop that hobby, maybe one day she'll develop a love for electronics and that can lead into maybe, you know, going to a park with me and doing some poeta one day.
Speaker 2:Well, go into a park with me and doing some podo one day. Well, you've got it. You've got it set up very easy and I I'm sure one of your daughters will pick up the mic with you at some point. I don't doubt that at all. But what? What I think makes it super easy for you is you have your, your radio in your jeep, ready to go all the time. One of these days you're going to say oh, I'm going to stop for this quick activation. We're coming past a park that I've never been to before. I need to activate it and and magically, one of the daughters will have interest in and we'll end up with the mic in her hand.
Speaker 2:It just will happen just try it whether, whether or not, that, whether she gets licensed or continues with it. But I fully anticipate, and while you don't ever come down to 40 meters when you activate, so I can't ever hear you in michigan because my antenna is not grounded well enough all right, are you atos folks?
Speaker 1:I won't, I won't hear it it's not because I don't want to be on 40 meters, it's because I can't be on 40 meters. It's so hard. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:Well, it's so hard to get states get parks within the same state, but anyway there will be a a very young voice on there calling cq from from whatever park. K you know, k jku, and it'll be very funny, it'll be cool. But we go back and some it'll be very funny.
Speaker 1:It'll be cool, but we go back to Some people will be very confused. But yes, you sound much younger.
Speaker 2:Suddenly sound younger. Yeah, Different voice. Your voice has changed. We go back to the Baofeng hate and my hatred and everyone's hatred towards the Roger beat.
Speaker 2:But that is one thing, and I've said this before the barrier to entry to the hobby, cost-wise, has essentially been eliminated with with the bow fangs and similar radios. And I, you know, we have seen that some, you know, when you mentioned, you know, someone shows up to the club with their brand new bow fang and they're proud of it. But would that, would that, you know, guy or gal, would she have been able to enter the hobby with, with having to go buy a two, three $400 handheld right off the bat? That keeps a lot of people out. I think that's one of the things. And we mentioned also the being encouraged of that person, encouraging of that person to learn more and get on the air with that radio.
Speaker 2:And that's the other thing you guys know I push, especially on our local machine here. Try not to leave any call unanswered. When you hear someone come on that you've never heard before, with a brand new Kilo Fox 8 call that you know is fresh off the press, at least take a moment to say hello to them, Let them know that they're in the right place, that they're welcome there, that they should come back, they should invite their friends, get their friends licensed. If that happens, it's important to keep that door open. I see too many times you get new hams that give their call out and no answer just because someone doesn't want to talk to someone they don't know. But how much does it take out of your daily life to take five minutes to talk to this person and make them feel welcome.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with saying I'm responding. I'm sorry, I only have a moment, but I wanted to say hi.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's all it takes.
Speaker 1:We'll talk soon and you can sign off from there as well.
Speaker 2:You know I take that leave no call unanswered thing from. I adopted that from some of my trips out to California.
Speaker 2:There's Southern California, the PAPA system is a series of a ton of linked 440 machines in Southern California and that's their rule. The guy who owns that, cecilwd6f, said hey, he's like we have 35 repeaters linked together. Someone better answer the guy when he gives his call. Sign out, because you would I mean, you think about that 35 repeaters linked from San Diego to Las Vegas and then up to they're probably almost to San Francisco now going to the North all linked together and that's linked before All-Star. That's actually all linked over RF at the time but I think some of their links are All-Star now. But anyway, that was his thing.
Speaker 2:We have all these things and someone gives their call out and no one can bother to answer. That's not cool. So leave no call unanswered. I always. We have right now a couple new folks on our repeater that are trying to get their station up to speed and I try to get back with them. Let them know whether they are or are not making it in. You know that's all important. Say hello to someone when they're at a meeting. I had someone. I think it was at either our social event, our beer social event, or at our last club meeting. I don't remember. Someone was there he mentioned he had been to another club.
Speaker 2:He had been to another club meeting. No one said anything to him. He came, he sat around, no one even said hello, you know who are you, how are you any of that? So you know, it's all the basic stuff, I think, getting people engaged and the more people you have in your club, the funner.
Speaker 1:The fun is not a word. More can have the different event types. You can learn from different people. They bring different things in there. So yeah, be kind, Jim, you were going to say something.
Speaker 3:No, I was just going to say I think funner actually got made a word eventually, by the way.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, yeah, I think they actually. You say more funner. Would that be proper English? Probably not.
Speaker 3:It's more funner, I believe more fun is the correct way to put that. I believe, funner is now a comparative adjective for fun. Anyway, that's a totally nerd thing to say.
Speaker 2:Another launchpad or gateway, though. When you have all these people together, you start playing with new things. You start playing with the Meshtastics. You start playing with new things. You start playing with the mesh-tastics, you start playing with the APRS, you start playing with all these things. That are some new technology, some old technology and that might be attractive to someone who's trying to get into it as well. We have a big push. It's interesting in our area right now, there's several of us that are going backwards in time and starting to explore packet radio of all things.
Speaker 3:Wait before we go too far wait before we go too far, because I have one more statement on our thoughts of like new folks on the radio and I have a challenge to issue for us folks that have been on the radio, that are hearing those new folks, which is you have to try to draw some conversation out of these folks, because they don't yet feel comfortable enough to be talking on the machine, right, the machine being the repeater or the frequency that they're calling on. I would challenge you and it's tough for me even, because whenever I try to run a thing or we have a late night round table that Rory and I run and I've been trying to expand that a little bit come up with interesting ideas. When you get folks on the radio, why are they there, right? The idea is and I like the technology and I like buying radios, so I just like pushing the button. But the idea really, I think, for the radio is for you to connect to people, and so I challenge you when you key up every time, what are you bringing to the table meaningfully, ask a question of somebody, ask them what they're up to, tell them what you're up to, try to give them something to build on.
Speaker 3:And that, for me, is another way that repeaters. Right now I find it extremely challenging because when I am in the car and someone calls, if it's just a test call and they're looking for a response. I'll give them a signal report and I'll say hey, you know, I'm coming back from Taco Bell, I just picked up my lunch. Weather out here is real beautiful today, although it's a little bit chill. Give them a little something, so maybe they can take a bite and then chew it up and give it back to you right Like. I think that that's for me. One of the things that I would love to hear more of is don't just say yes, no, I want you to give me a little something.
Speaker 2:I've always been fortunate or curse, depending how you look at it. I can more or less remember a snip about everyone. The next time I see or talk to them. I have a memory for, for, for names and voices and things. So oftentimes, even if it's someone brand new, I'll remember at least a snip of what I had spoken to them about previously or something I heard them talking to someone else about, and I'll bring that into the conversation and that helps connect to people as well.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes if you heard someone was talking about having difficulty getting their mobile installed, you might be able to ask them. You know, were you able to solve your problem? You know, did you get your antenna taken care of? You know, to get those. That's exactly and I'm not super conversational. You know to get those. That's exactly and I'm not super conversational. You know I struggle with it for a variety of reasons. But you know, in general I can pull it out and get a good conversation going. But yeah, you'll get those cues, those on the repeater, especially with new folks where there'll be just a very short response. You'll say you know how's your day going? Where are you off to? I'm out to lunch and you get the repeater beep and then they say yep, mcdonald's. And then they unkey.
Speaker 2:It does take a little bit of time for them to get courage to go on and on on the repeater and take it to the limits of the timeout timer, like some of us always do. But you have to help encourage them, both directly and indirectly. That is an excellent point, jim.
Speaker 3:The challenge goes both ways. You get what you give when it comes to a conversation, right. So when you think about operating on the repeater, that's what I'm always thinking about is, if you're going to be conversational, what do you have to give? And that's what you're probably going to get back. If you're terse, if you're short about it, intentionally or not, expect that you're probably going to get back. If you're terse, if you're short about it, intentionally or not, expect that you're not going to get much engagement on the machine.
Speaker 3:And I think that's what you have to do is encourage it being a conversational experience when you key up the radio, because if you're not operating FT8, digital with a defined exchange, if you're not operating CW, where you're working calls and formatted exchanges in most cases there are many people that do more on CW. I'm not making light of that. But when we're talking sideband or FM on a repeater, right, you got to give us something right so that we can give you something back, and that was what I wanted to drive at. I know we're getting tight on time. This has flown by, as our always does, but I think, james, go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, I was going to add my monthly reminder. New hams were not to go Facebook when to go to ask questions. The repeater there we go. It's a much more reliable and friendly source of engaging in discussion than the old Facebook, because nothing will kill your new spark faster than Facebook.
Speaker 2:There's one dude on the pod of Facebook and I'm not going to call him out. I hope to meet him in person one day and tell him how pleasant I feel he is. But Great, why respond? That's the other thing. Why take the response? Someone's asking a question.
Speaker 1:Rainbows, butterflies and kittens everyone. Let's keep it happy, and this jack wagon reply.
Speaker 2:I wish I could have pulled it up, because he's a dick. Okay, I would call him out.
Speaker 3:I've got his name and call sign right here, but I'm waiting to do it in person because he'll be a dick.
Speaker 2:This is the PG-13 episode 4 version here.
Speaker 3:You already cussed it's okay, it was going to happen eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just like everyone times out the repeater for the first time, everyone cusses for the first time there. But I mean, okay. So someone posted on the POTA Facebook thing and I wasn't going to make this a rant about Facebook, but here we go. Okay, someone needed to know. I don't even know. He wanted to know. You know, is the trail that I want to go activate within the park or not?
Speaker 3:Fair question, by the way.
Speaker 2:And yes, it's in the documentation. Yes, you can find it online. But help the guy out, you know it's the same thing. Maybe this guy's just wanting to get tips and ideas from people, not with some terse answer of well, you, you've asked three different parks and go look it up, go off and fall in a lake or something I mean what?
Speaker 1:what are we doing? I look forward to those midwestern response to that I didn't want to be vulgar, james.
Speaker 2:I mean that. That's why I said that we appreciate it was. It was going to be vulgar otherwise. So I mean, just you know, I, I really, and this same fellow is on the on the. I think he's in both the poda discord and the poda. What is that logging thing? I'm blanking the, the good logging we use for poda and polo.
Speaker 3:There we go polo that that you know discord.
Speaker 2:He's in there too a little longer out there it is, by the way but I mean anyway, sorry, you guys got me fired up about this gentleman if we can say one more thing comes to social media before you wrap this up, james, because I know you're ready no, I'm good he's afraid I'm gonna go off the edge again, that's what he's.
Speaker 1:I don't want to go to the r rating here oh, we, we, we could take it further, but that's only in the aftertaste today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the after show.
Speaker 3:No, the. The one thing I'll also say is, right, when we look at those places that new hams are landing, facebook's an easy place to land because you're getting fed aggregated things based on the interest that you're searching at the time and you often do get fed that, so be careful. The other thing I'm going to say is Reddit is another place where, if you go to slash Reddit, our amateur radio, there are some jerks on Reddit. Slash Reddit, our amateur radio, there are some jerks on Reddit and in the Reddit amateur radio sub, can be quite a tough place to get a good answer and get a positive response. And so I do caution when you browse those types of forums. Right that you take what you're reading there and you maybe check it in with the local club, right, you've got local resources If you don't use the ones that you do have around, yeah, I agree with you, man, it's tough.
Speaker 3:I try to add meaningful conversation to the amateur radio Reddit. On the regular I'll type a thought like hey, this is my experience doing this and I'll get downvoted into oblivion because it's not the popular reply to a question on a particular topic and that just bothers the heck out of me, and I've said it out loud before those types of forums are damaging the reputation of the hobby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Because you've got new arrivals that are asking legitimate questions that seem simple to an advanced operator and they're getting snarky replies. They're being downvoted, they're getting responses that are not helpful and when you put your thoughts, your experiences in, those are the things that those people can benefit from. So I would encourage you to go participate, add positivity to those things, add your own experiences and call out folks that aren't supporting that level of engagement. If somebody's not supporting it, call them out, ask them what they're adding to the conversation and ask them maybe to go find a different place to be.
Speaker 1:If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. There you go. This is Ben.
Speaker 2:Someone needs to tell this one guy and I just did a little research while you were ranting that same fellow is on Reddit as well, that I I'm not surprised.
Speaker 3:Yeah, On the regular I get pretty assaulted on the Reddit stuff, but that's a whole different topic.
Speaker 1:So I think we will wrap it up, but maybe my last big point here is join a club. I still really do believe in clubs 100%.
Speaker 1:If you are in one of these launchpad hobbies FRS scanners, sdr, gmrs, whatever it may be, even if you're not a licensed ham or you're not even sure if you want to go get licensed, find a local club in your area, show up, get to meet the people and you know what? Here's the crazy thing really get along with those people. Or you don't feel that's the club for you. Try a different club, join two clubs shop around.
Speaker 3:Yeah, shop around.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong, it's not a uh, it's not a one and done, it's not a marriage, so you can have multiple clubs, I promise I actually challenge don't join the club until you actually feel like you found a club that's the right one for you.
Speaker 3:And if you find a couple that you like the people in both of them join too, right. But don't just join a club because you showed up. Most clubs are open to folks showing up in the public and experiencing that and if you find that the folks there are meaningfully helpful, seem like a crew that you could get along with, that you'd like to hang with on the radio, maybe do some social type events with, that's the club that you want to join, right. If you don't find that in that club, that's okay, there's probably more around you. Go check out the next one until you find one that fits well.
Speaker 1:And again, different clubs are different people. Yeah, ham radio is a hobby within a hobby. Within a hobby, even clubs will have different flavors. Some are social clubs, some are parks on the air clubs, some are digital clubs, some are DXing clubs, some may be whatever clubs. So you know, you may over time even voyage out and see what other clubs are doing or go to other club events, and that's awesome.
Speaker 1:And that's why you know, that's what makes this hobby great, is meeting other people. So with that, Jim Rory, any closing remarks on our Launchpad topic.
Speaker 2:What's on the docket for May? I think there's a big, big event in May. There may be, Could it?
Speaker 1:be near Dayton Ohio.
Speaker 2:It could be near Dayton Ohio.
Speaker 3:So that does bring a question which I'll ask you guys, and if you feel like we need to defer, we will. But because Dayton and the Hamvention happens in the middle of May, I suspect that our episode in May will be slightly delayed as a result, because we're actually going to record something there. Is that the plan, guys?
Speaker 2:I think we were talking and we haven't come to a decision. I think you might see a little bit of a different format out of us in the month of May. You might see some shorter form stuff pop up. You might see some longer form stuff pop up. You might see some on the scene stuff pop up.
Speaker 3:And watch for our mic check videos on YouTube which James piloted our first one this last month.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry for that too. It was an excellent video.
Speaker 3:It was an excellent video. Go check it out. The mic check videos will be supplementary to the podcast, the intention being more in the field operating, more hands-on type videos, and those are going to be probably YouTube specific. So if you're not already following us over on YouTube, check it out. Don't feel pressured to subscribe, but we do think that there'll be some fun content that will supplement the podcast experience over there in video format.
Speaker 2:I do have plans to get some content together for a mic check of my own, Nice For the Michigan QSO party which is coming up in two Saturdays. So whatever the 19th. Easter weekend, so as part of that, I haven't decided where I will be yet. I will be in a rare county, but this weather man, I was hoping to make a run up to Keweenaw County up in northern Michigan, but they're still getting snowed on my backup to that.
Speaker 3:But you can't cross the bridge either.
Speaker 2:I could go through Chicago, but that's wild. My backup to that would have been the Mayo area and do one of the four counties that surrounds that, but that area is mostly closed, so we'll see where I end up, but I will be in a county that's not super populated to give people that are county hunting a better chance of getting someone on the air that that day.
Speaker 1:So get W8KNX in the old uh spotter app there ham alert.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:I'll be out there somewhere, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we will, we'll publish. We'll try to publish our plans beforehand on what we're going to do for hamvention. Yeah, jim raises a good point. There will be some hamvention content and we'll make sure that we we get that out to you guys. But, as always, if you have a launchpad thing that worked for you, your own personal story, put it in the comments, send us an email. You can find the podcast at wwweverydayhamcom. You can also find links to our youtube channel. There are various podcasting platforms that we're on for the audio version. We're also on Instagram at Everyday Ham, so go ahead and follow us there as well. We do post some shorts and content there in addition to those other channels. But with that again, thank you everyone for joining. Be sure to like and subscribe and all the things everyone always tells you to do.
Speaker 2:Make sure you comment as well. We enjoy interacting with everybody and we do respond, so certainly if you have a comment to make, feel free to reach out absolutely looking forward to seeing folks next month at the ham venture.
Speaker 3:We will be in the caesar creek campground so if you see us we may have some small sticker swag to give away and you might get a everyday ham pig for your own poda case, vehicle or other place that you might stick stickers like a toolbox in your garage that no one ever sees wow, that was quite the selling point so 73 can't get more exciting than that.
Speaker 1:So all right, everyone, thank you and uh 73.
