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. (Visit www.everydayham.com)
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
Is the Yaesu FTX1 a True Game Changer? Plus Dayton Hamvention 2025
Is the Yaesu FTX-1F a True Game Changer? Plus Dayton Hamvention 2025
Yaesu has shaken the amateur radio world with the release of their new FTX-1F series, particularly the Optima model with its revolutionary modular design. We explore the groundbreaking features that have hams reaching for their wallets—from the detachable QRP head unit that can operate standalone, to the 100-watt amplifier attachment that makes this one of the most versatile radios ever produced.
Rory takes us through his Michigan QSO Party adventure in Oscoda County, where he activated a rare county from a cozy Airbnb near Luzerne. Despite challenging band conditions, he managed to work over 40 Michigan counties and came away with a respectable score. His experiences highlight the perfect use case for Yaesu's new offering—a radio that can transition seamlessly from powerful base station to lightweight field unit.
With Hamvention rapidly approaching, we share our strategies for making the most of ham radio's biggest event. From forum recommendations (don't miss the POTA sessions!) to flea market tactics and practical advice about staying comfortable in the heat, we offer insights that will help first-timers and veterans alike. We'll be camping at Caesar Creek in the D-E loops and would love to meet listeners who are attending.
The FTX-1F Optima's impressive feature set includes dual antenna ports, built-in antenna tuner with memory, and modern USB-C connectivity for both data and power delivery. While not perfect—no true dual receive for satellite operations and no separation cable option for mobile installation—the radio represents a significant leap forward in transceiver design that may influence the direction of amateur radio equipment for years to come.
Grab your comfortable shoes, sunscreen, and shopping list—we're heading to Hamvention! We'll be recording short segments throughout the event to capture the excitement and innovation that makes this gathering the highlight of the ham radio calendar. Whether you're chasing the latest gear or hunting vintage treasures in the flea market, we hope to see you there.
Short show intro audio clip
Short outro audio clip
The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.
Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayhampodcast/
All right, welcome everyone to episode five of the Everyday Ham podcast. I'm James K-A-J-K-U, Don't know why that was hard today. I'm joined here by Jim Davis, N-A-J-R-D, and Rory Locke, W-8-K-N-X. So May is going to be a busy month for us. We got a lot of good stuff to talk about today. But first off, Rory, what has been going on in your ham radio world lately?
Speaker 2:Well, it was a very busy month and one of my favorite ham radio events of the year For me anyway. In the last five years or so I started probably since just before COVID, I started getting into the state CUSO parties and I tend to chase those around a bit. So a couple weeks ago we had the Michigan Michigan QSO party, which is, of course, our home state. So I took the trip north, decided to run away for a long weekend and went up to Oscoda County and activated Oscoda County. So one of the things I like to do is I prefer to go do the QSO party in a county that's not historically activated or hasn't been activated in the year prior, and all that data is available on the QSO Party website.
Speaker 2:So I went through and made a list of counties and decided to go up to Luzerne, found a neat little Airbnb and spent the weekend up there. So you can go to our YouTube channel and I think there might be a link that pops up somewhere on here if you're watching this on YouTube and you can take a look at the short video that we posted of my experience outside of Luzerne, michigan, doing the Michigan QSO party. I did okay. I could have done better. 20 meters was poor during the day which eliminated a lot of the out-of-state contacts, so that killed a lot of my multipliers that way. But I did get 41 of the 82 Michigan counties on 20 meters and no 40 meters and 80 meters.
Speaker 2:So that was oh no, there's 83 Michigan counties. I think Now I'm second guessing myself.
Speaker 1:I got roughly I'm not going to be able to verify it, so Someone will.
Speaker 2:Nobody's calling you a liar, because nobody knows except you approximately half will call it and uh, and I was happy I was happy with that.
Speaker 1:Um band conditions have been.
Speaker 2:That's pretty good actually yeah, and and I was I was glad to get what I could get and I think a lot of people got tired. 80 meters at night was not as busy as historically. I remembered it being One of our friends. Marty KBAJIU got chased off the frequency he was calling CQ on and someone started screaming Alaska, cuso party, alaska, cuso party. To get him off of their beloved 3810 that they were on. So that's okay. He flipped the switch and went to bed. He said he was about done, but right around 10,000 points, I think 150 CUSOs. I'm content with my Michigan CUSO party experience. So take a look at that video that's been posted and take a look at the Airbnb outside of Luzerne and it was a good weekend. I'd like to go back up there and spend some time. It had a nice fire pit, nice little outside area.
Speaker 3:It looked like a beautiful spit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was cool. It's not too far from Maude Eater's. If anyone's familiar with Luzerne, you could probably stumble there and back if you needed to. And, of course, the good old Luzerne Express convenience store, which was where I spent most of my money that weekend on food and beverages. So very good. What else is going on? I think we had our local club meeting this past Sunday and, as any of our longtime listeners know, we're all part of the same amateur radio club here in South Lyon, michigan, and we had a new member, a new potential member, I suppose. Pop by this time, chris KT8CAT. There we go.
Speaker 1:And officially a new member.
Speaker 2:Oh, did he join already. He is legit. Yep oh yeah. Little flub on the call sign there, but KT8CAT Chris joined up and he's been in touch with us on Discord and glad to be aboard. So we appreciate Chris listening to the podcast and appreciate him stopping by the club meeting this past Sunday.
Speaker 3:I think there was a gentleman or maybe lady I'm not sure it's hard to tell on YouTube comments that was also chasing you from Houghton. Was he able to get with you on your QSO party?
Speaker 2:So that was Tim W3TLP who was hunting me from Houghton County and I did not hear him and he did not hear me. I had a good exchange with him in the comments and he also said band conditions were not great for the little bit of time he had to play. So it actually brings me to kind of a bummer and I would have liked to have worked him because I did not hear Houghton County on the air this year and that's kind of a bummer. Wa1uju Glenn, who had been a long-time holdout for Houghton County on the Michigan CUSO party, both on phone and CW, became a silent key last year. So Houghton County was not represented last year. So, um, houghton County was not represented, keweenaw County was. However, the people from the uh, calumet, um, what is that thing called Keweenaw Repeater Association, the W8FWG group. They ran special event station whiskey, eight kilo. When they were on the air. I heard them but they did not hear me. So I had no QSOOs with with Houghton or Keweenaw County, but uh.
Speaker 1:I did have a few other UP counties so that was good and you usually go to the upper peninsula for Michigan, cuso, don't you.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of rare counties up there. So I have, I have in the past on Keweenaw County and, um, uh, schoolcraft Actually it's funny because we joke about that I've done that county once briefly, so just very quickly. Those both of those years I happened to be up there and it was Michigan CUSO party and I had radio with me so I was able to play. But this year was much more intentional with getting the cabin up there and spending the whole the whole weekend up there getting the antennas situated.
Speaker 1:And it was.
Speaker 2:it was a good time, like I, said it was just a well-needed weekend break and I I felt much better when I got back. People at work said I looked well, well rested, which means that I was good to hear. I was probably brutal, brutal and unpleasant leading up to that weekend, so I was actually concerned three, three separate people in three, three instances told me that I that I seemed much more relaxed. I'm like I guess I was worse than I thought.
Speaker 3:Well, you were looking.
Speaker 1:Go ahead, james, I was going to say you got a nice break right before Dayton here.
Speaker 3:I was going to say it's getting busy here. You were also looking at going up north this year, but the weather was looking a little bit prohibitive even that late in the season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just didn't work out. I was considering going all the way up and trying to do something in Keweenaw County. The time was there, I could have snuck another day away from work if I wanted to, but it just didn't work out. The planning for it I didn't quite have it together and, like you mentioned, we had just gotten done with the ice storms and then they were still getting another few inches a storm of snow up there. Um, our friend mike w8 msc, who I was able to work on on uh 40 meters. He was up in barraga county at his his property outside of lance and uh he said he was fine getting in and out, but I was okay with not having to trudge through the snow and be going up and down the highways and in in an early spring snowstorm well, awesome, it sounds like it was a successful cuso party in the middle of michigan and a beautiful uh beautiful little airbnb.
Speaker 3:If you haven't checked out the video, like rory said, definitely go check it out. That's the mic check series of videos that we're trying as a sort of interspersed video in between our podcasts, because we know they only come once a month, so maybe we're going to come up with a little bit of extra there. So check out those Mic Check videos. I think James has one out and now Rory has one out, so I guess I got to do something.
Speaker 1:We know who's next, because I'm being lazy.
Speaker 3:N-A-J-R-D.
Speaker 1:I think you'll have some opportunities coming up here soon.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, James. Anything going on with you Brand new.
Speaker 1:No, not too much radio related. My wife went out of town for a long weekend with her friends, so not much radio activity recently. Maybe the best time when the bands again are not really the best here. It has been tough Just trying to save my pennies and get the car ready for Dayton coming up. So I'm sure we'll talk about that here in a little bit as well. But Jim, what about you? What have you been up to?
Speaker 3:All right, a couple quick ones here before we jump into it, because I have excitement and I'm sure everybody's thinking the same thing here. We did right after the last episode go pick up a camper. So we're taking that down to Dayton, which is exciting. We will be at Caesar Creek and if you are at Caesar Creek and you're listening, come on by. We're going to be in the D E loops of Caesar Creek, down there in the hundred series campground. So if you see a guy like myself or a guy like James or a guy like Rory, wave to us to say hello. We'd certainly love to see and meet you and know that you're listening. But yeah, we're going to. We're going to bring our camper down. It'll be the first time taking it out for any long trip, so that should be exciting, that's fun, that's big time you will see me at the campground occasionally I am, otherwise We'll be at the Holiday Inn, yeah, Rory's the invited guest.
Speaker 3:That's right, rory. Well, it depends on how Friday evening goes, but you always have a pull-out sofa in the new camper, so that's uh, that's good, but uh, we do have, uh, we do have the campers looking forward to taking that down there. It'll be shakedown trip for us and I'm sure we're gonna forget something or otherwise something won't work quite how we planned it, but it'll be fun to go down there.
Speaker 1:The weather knock on and whatever's wood around you, gentlemen, don't do it, don't do it, it's looking okay, it's looking okay it's looking warm, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:I'm actually a little concerned about the temperatures being warm.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right. That's what I was going to say. If it's up over 80, any three of those days, it's going to be very warm in those big barns, but I am still looking forward to it, so it should be fun.
Speaker 3:We are, of course, if you're not following along and tracking here, dayton will be there, and so, yeah, very good, looking forward to that and we had a little excitement. Looking forward to that and we had a little excitement. I will just mention this. You probably see the dogs running around in the background. One of them had surgery a week ago, so it bit into my date and fun, but it's okay. We're happy to have the dog. He is healthy and rested now and he'll be down with me, so it's a nice little bonus there that he's all good with a little scare that we had just a week ago.
Speaker 1:That is good, we were worried. We were worried.
Speaker 3:I messaged both of these guys and they were very genuinely concerned. But Cash, my black poodle, he's only three years old, he's going to make it. He had a little thing that he had to get taken care of, but glad to do that and it's OK. But the other big news, gentlemen and I'm sure it's just about on everybody's tip of the tongue if you're listening is of course the new Yaesu release and we finally have some confirmation about what this FTX1 means to us in radio and I think that yeah.
Speaker 2:So who all has their order in for it already? Let me ask that question.
Speaker 1:Two of the three.
Speaker 2:Two of the three. I wonder which two those are.
Speaker 1:Can't tell.
Speaker 3:Well, we both had reservations, so it should be a pretty easy mapping if you've been listening since the beginning.
Speaker 1:James and I were both reserved. We were on the fence on those reservations, though.
Speaker 3:That's true, and when we were talking about it, I think that the initial excitement, of course, was that yeah, this is a really neat radio, something to compete with the IC705 that we've talked about before.
Speaker 3:But James and I, both being more sideband-oriented than CW or otherwise, were concerned a little bit that QRP might not get through the pileups, might not do what we need to do for POTA, even though it would have been cool no matter what. So the big excitement is that Yaesu is telling us there's a 100-watt attachment for the FTX1. Is that Yesu is telling us there's a 100-watt attachment for the FTX1, and it changed everybody's mind, I think, and mostly here in the club. We have almost eight folks that have ordered an FTX1 Optima Series 100-watt radio. So it's a huge, huge drop from Yesu. I love that they played the cards close to the chest right up until before Hamvention, because they definitely knew that this was going to drum up some serious attention. They have what three booth spaces in the barn that they are calling the Yesu Experience.
Speaker 1:Which they always have a great show in, and the free hats and the free hats.
Speaker 3:But it sounds to me like the plan is to have all of these radios at the show, so you're going to actually be able to put some fingers on the FTX one see how it operates actually under.
Speaker 3:you know, pull the glass off the top of it, poke the buttons, touch the screen, see how it works. And also it sounds to me like they're bringing all of the other radios sitting beside it, so you can kind of compare and contrast those features and decide what's right for you. Because let's also acknowledge the sort of elephant in the room it's not an inexpensive radio, right? It wasn't an inexpensive radio when it started, and now, with all of the climate changes in pricing, we're looking at $1,400 for the head, which is just the field model, the FTX1 field model.
Speaker 3:Which is the 10 watts that's right, the 10 watts, and then the FTX1 Optima with the 100-watt attachment is close to $1,900, $1,899, I believe and so it's not an inexpensive radio. And let's be the first to acknowledge that I doubt it's a starter radio for Benny. When we're talking about close to $2,000, it actually becomes a sort of barrier to entry, I think. But it is a very exciting radio and I like what Yaesu's doing here in its sort of modular design. So what do you guys think? What's your thought?
Speaker 1:We talked about that modular design or we speculated on it, we knew there would be attachments. We definitely saw from the Tokyo show that there was the rails and the points on the back for it to connect, and I'm very excited that we now have a true modular radio. And the part that is great also is you're talking about the price point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's expensive.
Speaker 1:It's not an entry-level radio. It offers a lot of versatility, but the nice part I could see in the future is it can grow with you, though it's buy once. What is it?
Speaker 3:Buy once, cry once. Yeah, there you go, thank you. Buy once, cry once.
Speaker 1:You know, because maybe in the future, you know, there's a change to the amplifier.
Speaker 1:So you want to maybe swap it out, or maybe you do want to try QRP and you want to get the tuner module or a bigger battery or some other accessories. Absolutely, you know it can really kind of grow with you in the hobby and we know ham radio is a hobby, where it's a hobby within a hobby which we talked about before, and maybe right now SSB is your thing, but maybe you want to get into more digital, maybe you want to try QRP. This really does open those doorways and I'm really excited that Yezu has gone this direction. I mean, we posted a video. Is Yezu changing the game?
Speaker 1:I think they did, I think they did and I think they hit the mark. And I think they and the one thing I was really impressed with you saw John the sales rep doing the live demonstration. He's been on the forums. He's been posting the comments. That's right. And the part I really am impressed by, you can see that they're listening to the feedback from hams. They acknowledge it's expensive but they're literally saying, if this is what you wanted, well, here it is. You wanted this. Now you got it.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to see that level of engagement from a major manufacturer as well.
Speaker 2:They're very interested in the user's opinions. As we found, they've been prowling through social media like crazy and putting comments on all sorts of channels, not even the big channels.
Speaker 2:We even got a comment on our channel from them in response to something and I think that's excellent the YouTube live that they did, detailing everything and talking over some of the decisions they had to make and going through and confirming or denying people's comments on all sorts of social media. I think that's tremendous to see Yezu doing that outreach. And I did not, as I kind of alluded to moments ago, I did not put my reservation in. I had. No, I wouldn't be purchasing a QRP rig. It's not something that would ever be in my collection, so it wasn't on my mind. Of course I wanted to see it.
Speaker 2:If someone got it, I would play with it and look at it and turn the knobs and see how far I could get on 10 watts. But I would not with it and look at it and turn the knobs and see how far I could get on 10 watts. But I would not own one. But with the Optima option as part of the package, it is on my list to purchase. I don't know that I'll be purchasing one at Dayton. I haven't decided if I want to drop the change yet and I have to make some other sales of equipment that I have. Get it off the desk Before trading.
Speaker 3:I know how that goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it has to be done. But I will own one and it's looking like it's going to be my base rig. To be quite honest, and that's the cool thing about this is that it has all the things. It's all band, all mode, which I enjoy having, and it would replace an older rig here on the desk. What is this thing? A 7100, IC7100, ICOM rig which I always wanted one. I finally got one, but I played with it and I want something new instead. So that's what's happening here. I feel the price is appropriate. I mean it is not an entry-level radio. Price is appropriate. I mean it is not an entry-level radio. But, Jim, you can kind of talk to the, compare the receiver and some of the technology to the DX10, which is a tremendous rig, and I think you're getting exactly what you're paying for on this one. And I don't think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's priced correctly, to be quite honest, Jim, do you know when you talk, are you going to go through the price of what the amplifier module is alone, the 100 watt.
Speaker 3:Yep, I think we can just acknowledge that right now, which is to say if you're going to buy the kit together, which all of the folks in the South Lion Club who have pre-ordered the actual Optima are ordering, that package, which is the FTX1 Optima package, and that includes the SPA1 amplifier and it includes the FTX1 field head. Now it's also important to mention, I think, that the FTX1 field head includes the battery, so you can still take the head off of your Optima unit, slide the battery on. That's in the box with your Optima package and you can go QRP, take it out into the field and go play with 10 watts, right. Maybe it's a fine afternoon and you want to slide out onto the back porch with the nice margarita and try to get a little, you know, do a little CW on the back porch, right? It gives you that flexibility and that's what I really think they nailed with that Optima package is they're not leaving the battery out of the package and making you get that separately.
Speaker 1:You're getting the whole kit and caboodle when you order Optima it's a great deal Go ahead. I almost wonder what is going to be their. They'll never publish these numbers, but the ratio of sales for the Optima package versus the Field package Right, and everything I've seen in my small little sample size of ham radio enthusiasts is showing that the Optima package by far and away is the most popular package.
Speaker 2:I enthusiast is showing that the Optima package by far and away is the most popular package. I don't know anyone that's put an order in for the field.
Speaker 1:No, me neither, and it's almost like the Jeeps. There's a four-door version, which now is, I think, 80% of all sales, and then you have the remaining two doors that are still lingering around. I just think the Optima package is just going to be.
Speaker 2:Having been a previous Jeep owner, we could probably do a whole conversation on the two-door versus four-door Jeep thing and we'd have to bring in Jason K and 4AL for his.
Speaker 1:I'll sit back on that one. I don't think we're ready for this level of discussion.
Speaker 2:I no longer have that, but I can only imagine. But anyway, sorry, I digress there terribly.
Speaker 3:No, it's a good question, and I think what you're driving at, james, is say I don't buy the Optima package right out of the gate. Could I piecemeal it together, and is it affordable to do that? The answer really is probably not right. If I want to get the most bang for my buck and we know that we always joke on this podcast, hams are cheap, us included, me included specifically right, I'm going to pay the $1899 out of the gate instead of the $1499 out of the gate and I'm just going to get the 100-watt amp. And the reason being is we know now that the SPA-1 is available, the MSRP list was $800 for the SPA-1, which is the 100-watt amplifier add-on for this radio, but it looks like at retail it's going to be about $649 plus tax and shipping, whatever that ends up being so a decent deal.
Speaker 3:It's not a bad deal, but I think you're saving yourself $250, $300 by not buying just the head. So you really have to look at how you want to operate, and I do think there are going to be some soda operators, some poda operators and some real hardcore CWers that are going to be like never cared about 100 watts.
Speaker 3:I only wanted it for the QRP and that's awesome and I love that they're giving us that option. It was a huge mind changer for me when they dropped the Optima package. I had speculated about two days before, when we heard that there was going to be a 100-watt amp option, that I hoped that there was going to be a bundle package right off the hop and Yaesu was 100% ahead of me on that one. They had that bundle package ready and I agree with James. I would bet it represents better than 80% of their sales.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has to, and also put in the comments. So if you're listening to the audio podcast or the YouTube version, put in the comments if you're buying one or if you're not buying one, and why or which package are you buying? Because I'd really be curious to see what is the ratio of Optima package versus Field package.
Speaker 3:I got one more thing to layer on that. If you're in the comments and you're thinking, boy, the FTX Optima is $1,900. Yesu has a lot of great radios that are cheaper than that. I'm going to buy this instead and I would love to hear what you're buying instead of the FTX Optima now that you know how expensive it is.
Speaker 3:Right, and the reason I say that out loud is I owned a 710, an FT710, the field model, and I owned the FT-DX10. Both of them I took out and poda'd at 100 watt width. The DX10 is a heavy radio to go podaing with, so I'm a guy that sits at a picnic table with a 20 amp hour battery. Right, I know I'm not hiking into the deep back country to do poda, but I poda'd with both of radios and there are a lot of radio for the money, especially when you talk about the FT710 field. I think again, we talked about Yesu competing with themselves. In many ways, ft710 is still going to be taking a lot of the bread. That's an excellent radio and if you're thinking the Optimus too much, I highly recommend that FT710 field as an excellent option.
Speaker 2:You made me think about something when you were talking about hauling around heavy radios and that, and we'll bring the UP up as a point again. There's a handful of points in the UP that I've visited over the years that are not all POTA parks, but they're all places that I've wanted to operate radio from, and some of them require anywhere between a mile and a two, three, four mile hike which for me is healthy, healthy hike.
Speaker 2:Good good hike. So I'm looking at this and it spurs a. You know it talks to me because maybe this is something I'll do. Ftx one field comes in just by itself. 2.75 pounds, throw that into a backpack, that's. That's very light. Of course, you'll have some other things that you'll need to take along, and I don't think that includes any battery weight. Ftx1 Optimize 8.6 pounds. So both radios are not heavy. The versatility to be able to pack one of these up and carry it anywhere is going to go a long way and I look forward to that. So, even though I said mine will be a home shack queen and sit on my desk, it's not something that I'm going to be opposed to packing up when I need to. My 891 will still be my POTA radio, but I think I will be more apt to take this out when I want to have a little bit extra in the field.
Speaker 1:Now the only thing I think I was a little bit disappointed in and again we'll go through the very impressive specs here. I think in a minute, jim, you probably have some stuff queued up. Knowing you, I do. I was really optimistic or hopeful, maybe is a better word that it could be a mobile replacement for my 891 in the vehicle.
Speaker 3:I was as well.
Speaker 1:And we found out through some comments, I believe by John, that there is no separation cables for the head. So that's not really going to be an ideal setup for a mobile. So that's not really going to be an ideal setup for a mobile. I'm sure some people will find a great way to make it work, but that's the one, I think, disappointment I have in the radio no-transcript about the future, we sure do hams do nothing but speculate.
Speaker 2:You ever listen to a repeater during drive time? I mean, we're speculating on everything. Um, I and I've been kind of discussing with jim and others along the way. I I wonder what else yezu has up their sleeve. Does this mean there's a new family of of radios that they're going to continue to produce? Is there a mobile? Is there an actual mobile that's going to come out of this? Because I did wonder, uh, initially, was I going to look at my my mobile install and do something completely different with this rig if that was an option? But at this point it's not. But I do wonder if they're going to come out with something. The 891 at some point will be getting a little long in the tooth and I wonder if there will be something with the fancy colorized screen and everyone needs a scope. So you know everyone's got to have these radios with scopes. I don't use the scope because I don't have a radio with one. So you know it's no big deal to me, but not yet.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, yeah, I yeah that's, that's what everyone says, but I'm looking forward to picking one up. Like I said, it's not probably not going to be next week, but uh, it'll be very soon.
Speaker 1:And did we also. It does not have the true dual receive correct for satellite operation also.
Speaker 3:Yeah it definitely. I think that was one of the things that everybody was hoping that it was going to be a super competitor as a satellite rig, right, and there are a slimmer group of folks that are operating true satellite where you need VU in a true full duplex situation and, unfortunately, while it will receive V and U or U and U and V and V, it is not a true full duplex receiver.
Speaker 3:And what they did admit to was that with the real estate in the head itself which, when you think about it, recall we are talking about a rig that is fairly compact, right Size-wise If you have an FTM 500 near you it's only a couple inches longer and about a half inch taller, so it's a pretty small rig. And, rory, by the way, the 2.2 pounds, I think that is with the battery attached.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, see, I'm surprised.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So if you can believe that, that'll give you six watts in your backpack, with the battery attached for two pounds, which give you a lot of flexibility that is pretty cool that is true.
Speaker 3:No, no, full duplex, and I think that was. Uh, there was a small subset of folks that were really disappointed to hear that. Um, I, I would have loved to see them check that box, uh, mostly, but it wouldn't have been something I would have heavily leveraged, especially at qrp levels. And I know that satellite ops don't need 100 watts, they need 10, right, because you've got line of sight, line of sight to the sky yeah, I don't think it swings by.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, so the the the field, so the control had 8.4 inches by 3.5 inches by 2.2 inches. That's uh, that's nice compact size? Yeah, it's a good size I am even on the desk, like I said, to have it at home here to. I don't have a very large shack, so you know real estate on my desk is at a premium, so that's that's a big plus there too.
Speaker 3:I have a couple of interesting things and I'll tell you guys. Today, right before the podcast, we found out that the actual instruction manual dropped, so there's some hot off the presses info that I don't think we knew yet. And we've been working overtime for you guys that are listening to understand by combing through the comments not only on Yesu America's announce video, but also looking at how they're replying to us and others to try to understand this whole thing so that you guys know what's coming, mostly because I'm interested, because I can't wait for it to get delivered.
Speaker 3:I hope it shows up before the end of May, because I already sold a radio that I was using in place of it. I hope it shows up before the end of.
Speaker 3:May, because I already sold a radio that I was using in place of it. But I have a couple of things and I'm going to show them to you guys. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see my screen, but if you're not watching, that's okay, we'll describe it to you just as well. So let's get over there and take a look. And the first thing that I want to mention to you guys is we saw a lot of pictures of the head of the unit, right, and we've seen the front and the back of the head. We saw it even as early as the Tokyo Ham Show.
Speaker 3:But we didn't understand what the Optima meant to this particular package until last week, which was first, it adds 100 watts and we were like, okay, awesome, right, but we knew there was no tuner in the head and we were curious does getting Optima mean I get a tuner? Does getting Optima add any other features? And the answer is, thankfully, yes. So the back panel of the Optima, finally revealed by the new instruction manual launch, which is available today. So if you go over to Yesucom you can find it. We now know that on the back of the Optima there are actually two HF antenna ports, not just one. Yeah, that's so nice, huge deal for me.
Speaker 1:So nice, huge deal for me.
Speaker 3:I think that Yesu abandoned this somewhere around the FT3000 series where at this price point they were offering dual antenna on their HF rigs and then, when the DX10 dropped, we went back to a single antenna out the back.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell you, when I got the 101MP around Thanksgiving of last year, having the three antenna ports on the back makes a huge difference because the software controls every one of those things. You can swap between your receiving antenna or hey, I'm going to use my vertical because I know it's getting out well on 20. And then I'll switch over to my NFED, which is able to get down to 80 meter, right. So it gives you that flexibility, especially when you think about how the Optima is intended to be used in the shack, to switch between a couple of different antennas, and if you don't have two antennas right out of the gate, that's okay. It gives you flexibility to expand down the line. So I was excited to see them bringing that back. That's an artifact of previous models of Yaesu that, at this price point, I think it deserved and I am extremely happy to see it mean that's only better and better for being a desk.
Speaker 1:What'd you call it desk, queen rory?
Speaker 2:yeah, I did, I did, yeah, I mean it's an excellent feature again.
Speaker 1:I mean, it really makes the radio more versatile and it shows that they're listening again well, at the same time as a as a deployable rig.
Speaker 2:I, if anyone goes back and watches my my mic check of of the michigan cuso party video um, I did have two antennas up there. It would have been very nice to be able to switch between the two because at the beginning of the day, when 20 meters was bad, I had both antennas set, tuned to 20 meters so that I could switch between the two, trying to see was it my station or or was it the bands. It turns out it was the bands, but it would have been nice to just have that instead of having to, in my case, change out the coaxial screw and put the new one in there, because, of course, I didn't bring a switch with me. Who thought I would need that? But in this case it would have all been there. That is excellent. That made me happy to see that as a native part of this package.
Speaker 3:Let me tell you another thing here, and I know you guys are screaming at your monitor, jim, a cheap two-way antenna switch is $35 on Amazon. It can be delivered to me overnight. I don't care if it has two ports. Let me tell you why it really matters, though. The built-in antenna tuner which is built into the Optima Plus One is able to keep a map of the SWR readings across both of those antennas, right? So when I switch back and forth between antenna one and antenna two, if I've tuned that antenna up, the memories and there are many banks of memories when we tune below two, we'll go back to that set of relays and I don't have to push that tune button again, and I'll tell you.
Speaker 3:It takes me to my next point on this one, which is that this does have the tuner built in, but it's buried in the menus, guys. So there is no dedicated tune button that we can tell on the FTX1, right? So to get to it, hold the function button down, then the display, which is a four and a half inch touchscreen. Now I have fairly svelte fingers, but I always call them meat mitts. I have to poke the antenna tune button and then, from the antenna, tune subsequent things that I need to do to get a tune on my antenna.
Speaker 3:So when I talk about two antenna outputs, when I tune that thing up, it's awesome that it remembers I'm on antenna one and the tune for this particular antenna was here. So I love that they added that second antenna port. I know it doesn't sound significant, but when you talk about how ATU works, I believe it adds a serious level of versatility to this thing on your desk being able to work an NFED, which is generally a pretty awesome antenna but probably has some compromises at the edges of the bands. And then something else whether you have a beam up there for 10 meter because you're swinging it around to do super DX, or you're using, like me, a DX Commander in the backyard, which is another multi-band antenna but just gives you a different polarization. It gives you so much flexibility.
Speaker 1:So those are two things that I got super excited about. It didn't have any programmable memory buttons, did it Anywhere. I don't remember seeing that.
Speaker 3:No, as far as I can tell, and I have only had a little less than 120 minutes with this manual before we got on the air here tonight.
Speaker 1:What are you doing?
Speaker 3:with your time. I was looking to see On many of the AC radios there are hot keys or programmable buttons that can be mapped to a user function. Right, if we can map the ATU to a user function button, I'm going to be in love, let me tell you. Because if we have direct access, like, let me let me give you my perfect example. And if, if he is watching this, which I hope they are the SDX key on the top of this unit, right, if I can long press the SDX key to activate the tuner as a user selectable hotkey boy, do I like that as a tuner shortcut? The SDX key is something that is a short press on or off, and I think you can reuse that button as a hotkey for tuner without any trouble at all. So I would love to see that. And that's just me brainstorming as I'm thinking about how this thing works, because you either have SDX on or off. It is what they have.
Speaker 1:They've softly called a preamp, but more or less, it just increases the receiver sensitivity, one of the advantages of an SDR radio. That's right Software defined, I mean you can push updates.
Speaker 3:I'm hoping for a firmware update in the future that does give us mappable button for that ATU. So I have a couple other things that I'm thinking about here and if you watched John's presentation you might have been wondering if you have an ATOS on your car already and you were thinking I want to go mobile with this thing and I want it to move my ATOS around. You heard John say that it wasn't going to be able to drive the ATOS right and we didn't understand what he meant necessarily, and I think that he clarified later on in that presentation. So we were a little confused. But on page 78, we have a final word on this which is really, really interesting If you have an ATOS antenna and you can connect it to the back of the FTX1 field there right, because the ATOS will tune up into the two meter band right, rory.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:Yep, so you can duplex into your ATOS, right. So one antenna, both ports, right. And if you're feeding it mobile power, so 13.8 volts or above, right Standard DC out of your vehicle while you're powering it. Or maybe you have your uh, your lithium polymer battery that you're working POTA, right, it will drive the worm drive for the ATOS and it will move the antenna up and down. Now the big standout here is if you're running on battery power right, the battery nominal voltage is 10.8 volts, right, so it's a little below what I think the ATOS wants for power, and so they are not allowing it to drive the ATOS. When you're running battery power, you need to be hooked up to that DC input, and it looks like you need at least five amps. So I was happy to see that no additional tuner hardware is required, but you do just need some power and that makes sense.
Speaker 1:And, to be fair to you, one thing I think I was confused on was there's two tuners, there's the. If you look at the kit, there's obviously the one in the Optima, in the amplifier. Then there's a long wire tuner as well, and I think they were speaking about the long wire tuner.
Speaker 3:Obviously it's not designed to run an ATOS, but yeah yeah, the long wire tuner also doesn't clip onto the back of this. It's actually a universal tuner for many of the Yaesu products and if you're using the long wire tuner and you love it, I would love to hear that down in either the comments or if you let us know what you think of that, because it's been on my radar but I never understood what exactly, whether or not it was a good piece of product. Anyway, I thought that was really interesting. I got one last thing for you guys, and it is possibly Yesu finally embracing what I believe is a modern standard. You ready for it? It is USB-C, guys.
Speaker 2:We have USB-C across the rig.
Speaker 3:We have USB-C inputs across this rig, thank God, even on the ICOM 705, by the way, you did not get USB-C out of the box. So there are some boards you can retrofit the ICOM 705 with to make it USB-C compatible. But I am so glad to see that Yaesu is embracing USB-C here. There are no excuses If you want to connect your computer to this particular rig for FT8 purposes, for PSK RIDI, whatever you're doing, you're going to use your standard A to C cable. In the case of a laptop, maybe you have C ports on your Mac and you're hooking it up right. In the case of a laptop, maybe you have C ports on your Mac and you're hooking it up right. You've got that option.
Speaker 3:I loved finding out that it is USB-C compatible and supports what 60 watts of power delivery as well, so you could charge the battery with your MacBook adapter, for example, a nice, powerful. I have a GaN, a gallium nitride adapter on my desk here. This is a 60 watt adapter that's smaller than the palm of my hand. That would charge this thing and it's far more portable than most of the things that are packed in to charge these batteries. So I love seeing that we have power delivery. That is high power and it's going to be able to charge this thing and do data cat and all of the audio inputs and outputs on this thing.
Speaker 3:So, I'll stop sharing. I'm excited, I'm thrilled about this thing.
Speaker 1:Beck. What do you guys think? No, I was going to say that would be great too for the soda users that use their cell phones with the USB-C for FT8 or digital modes as well.
Speaker 2:So that would be a really nice addition, one of my questions early on was did we know what the input outputs were for this? And of course we didn't. Yet that was one of the questions I I posed to the one of the group chats and we did not. So for this to come out was was very exciting. The usbc on the control head is is very, very exciting.
Speaker 2:It's like jim mentioned there. It's one less thing you gotta pack. You can multi-purpose if you're packing for a trip and you gotta pack light. Uh, that's one less thing you can have to take and you have your charging cable. When you asked me about the antenna earlier, I was distracted. I was busy reading the manual, trying to come up to see if there was an answer for programming a soft key or something, because for my 891, when I run the external tuner on it, I do have one of the soft keys programmed to engage my tuner, so I don't have to go into the menu. So I was hoping I would find something in the manual while I was sitting here and then you were asking me about the ATOS and it looked like I wasn't paying attention.
Speaker 3:So that's great, but uh no, I researching on the fly here.
Speaker 1:Again, I am excited about this. One is also in there too, right?
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 3:It lives it, I, we, we did joke right. Is C4FM dead? And this was in our Is Yesu Changing the Game podcast. Guys, we were speculating a little bit. We are pushing a little bit of the most extreme end of a spectrum when we talk about some of these things to get you guys excited about, to get you thinking about what if that happened. Right, but the answer was, and I think that we all knew in the back of our head Yaesu still sells a ton of DR2X repeaters. There is a lot of C4FM that is on the air, especially in the metro Detroit area, and is very active. So I am happy to see that this is a rig that does C4FM. I didn't expect.
Speaker 2:C4FM to go away. Yaesu invested too much money in getting the repeater program started and more or less giving them away, and in a lot of cases very, very inexpensive.
Speaker 3:High value yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I really didn't expect C4FM to go away. I'm looking forward Actually, that's on my dating list to purchase. I need a Fusion handheld. I don't have one, so that will be the FT5D. Is that right, jim? I lose track of all these numbers.
Speaker 2:Yep, that will be the FT5D. Is that right, jim? I lose track of all these numbers. Yep, that will be one of my first purchases down there. I'm going to get that and get that on the air as soon as I get down there. Might head over to my friends at DX Engineering right when I get there. That might be my first stop.
Speaker 3:Maybe they'll recognize you from the everyday ham Roy. I'm kidding.
Speaker 2:I don't expect that. I don't expect that I don't expect that.
Speaker 3:I I want to segue with with your thing, which is first, I want to ask you uh, what is one of the reasons that you want to get that a? Uh, that handheld right out of the gate at the? Uh, at the?
Speaker 2:show because I want to be able to ping aprs from my backpack as I'm wandering around like a complete nerd all right, and that brings me to my final comment on the ftx1. This baby does APRS Nice key up there, but does it, do it natively Jim, or did you need to add something?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to acknowledge here that it's a bit of a compromise on this and we got so much built into this thing. I guess I'm not complaining too much right now.
Speaker 3:And let me tell you what with my Optima order, I have the BU6 on order, which is the Bluetooth unit. I'll probably never use Bluetooth, but it's okay, I have it. I have the GPS, the FGPS5 on order and I have the cage on order. So I have three of the accessories on order. So I've got the full Monty coming. So look for a mic check video when it comes, because we are going to unbox that thing together, guys, and we are going to put it all together and we're going to poke the buttons. But anyway, it has APRS, guys.
Speaker 3:I'm very excited about the APRS part of it. It does require that the FGPS 5 is built into the side of the unit, or plugged into the side of the unit, rather, and it is a little ungainly. It's a small unit but it has to be plugged in with a little jack. So it sort of harkens back to the old VX8D era where you had to put that big thing on the top of the handheld to make it do GPS. But I'm happy that it's there and, honestly, we got so much in this thing. It's okay that there's a little compromise.
Speaker 2:I suppose real estate is a premium in this package, so it's not going to be something that they're going to add in there if they didn't need to. So I guess I can get over that it was an add-on. I don't know.
Speaker 3:So I'll take this as a little segue and you guys can tell me if there's any last thoughts FTX1-related that you missed. Do you have any thoughts one way or the other?
Speaker 1:I'm excited. I want to get my hands on it. Let's go Absolutely, me too, I am extremely stoked.
Speaker 3:Come on, ham Radio Milwaukee. I'm Ham Radio Outlet Camp over here. I've been ordering from Ham Radio Outlet for ages, looking forward to it. So that brings us to the elephant. The second elephant in the room, which is Dayton, is coming.
Speaker 1:Dayton, hamvention, here we go.
Speaker 3:It is only five days until I launch from the QTH here to Dayton, and it is just under. Well, it's just a little over a week until we're at the show rubbing elbows, poking all the newest things, buying all the things we don't need, or maybe we do need and we just don't know it yet. What are your guys' plans? Tell me about your strategies for Dayton and we've talked Dayton before, so give me something fresh. What are you thinking when you get down there? It's going to be 2025. Looks like it's going to be an awesome year. There's some really cool stuff coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something new for me actually this year is I'm going to try to go to the QRP, the Four Days in May event, so I have wanted to check that out. That's completely fresh. I've have heard really good things about it, so I'm excited to see that. And honestly, I'm excited to see what ICOM and Kenwood do to try to compete with Yaesu. Yaesu has stole the show and they're a week away from Hamvention. So I think these organizations they knew the FTX1F was coming out for a while. I know these companies don't exactly push products super fast, but I'd be curious to see how they're going to try to market what they have or what's coming up on the horizon for them.
Speaker 3:I know you have something on your mind there.
Speaker 2:Well, I have a lot of things on my mind. I'm going to go to the QRP. What is it, James? It's the vendor show. What is it actually called?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's a vendor show, the Thursday night event Four Days in May, right, isn't it called Four Days in May?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds right, but I intend to go there on Thursday night. It looks like just from some things I saw online last year, that looked like it was a well worthwhile event. So I'll pop through there Thursday night. Of course I'll be ready to go Friday morning in line with every other bozo trying to get into the uh, the green county fairgrounds. There I will say, um, oh, I'm sure most of you guys will be trying to park on site and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2:I don't park on site, I park at the xenia high school and take the shuttle bus over. Um, I found that to be my way to do it. Uh, my, my friend sean k-8-S-A-W brought that to my attention and well, probably a couple years back the first time I went to it at its current location. For anybody who's listening that would rather not walk through a grass parking lot or that's difficult for you. The parking off at the school is very easy. The buses pick you up more or less right at your car and it drops you off more or less right at the gate.
Speaker 2:There's no rain in the forecast at this point but my last two times down there there was rain, so to be able to park off at the school was just much more convenient. I'll put that plug out there, but I will be at the. I'll be in line, ready to go. Now let me tell you a story. Last year I don't remember clearly whether it was going or coming or going, but I clipped the side of the asphalt, the path going in, and tumbled right to the ground, and that it must have been going in, because I was all discombobulated trying to walk around.
Speaker 3:I was not hurt you were only half a coffee in at that point.
Speaker 2:Probably no coffee in, but that's a separate story for Hamvention. But yeah, so we're going to try not to fall down trying to get into Hamvention.
Speaker 1:Good, positive step, no pun intended.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping for a good, positive step, absolutely Anyway, pun intended.
Speaker 2:And if the weather holds out like I said, I'm going to go make the one purchase at DX pretty quickly there, but I'll probably be headed right out towards the flea market on Friday. Get a good look at all that the stuff in the buildings, the vendor stuff, that'll all be there. There's nothing there that's going to disappear, unless you know of someone that's selling something. One of the vendors might have something that's in short supply, but in general, everything that they have they're going to have all weekend or they can ship to you later. So my plan Friday is to get out to the fleet market. Also, keeping an eye on the forum schedule. I took a look through that. I haven't quite decided which ones interest me, but I've made this comment to a couple other people. It is going to be warmer.
Speaker 1:One of the pluses about the forums is they are in an air-conditioned building, so when you've been wandering, around in the heat all day and you can go take an hour, hour and a half, sometimes two hour break in the building with the forums, get out of the heat. It's a good opportunity to let your body relax and cool down a little bit. We're proud to say some of our club members will also be presenting so Jason Kane 4AL will be presenting in one.
Speaker 1:Mike W8MSAL will be presenting in one, mike W8MSC will be presenting in one. It's great to see that POTA is getting its sort of dues. I guess you'd say Seems like some really good presentations. So I think the first one is from some board representatives, so hopefully they'll talk about what they see the future of POTA is some of the things they're working on, at least that's what I'm hopeful for, some of the things they're working on, at least that's what I'm hopeful for. Uh, and then the second forum talks to some really active poda, poda activators and and what they do, and then a discussion around it. So I think that is going to be a pretty cool, pretty cool discussions right in the middle of the day. Get in there, get cool. I think it's in the main forum building. So you know, of course I'm going to plug my friends, but it friends, but it should be a packed house. Pota draws a crowd, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I actually I'm glad you brought it up, because one of the things that's on my radar and I'm only what eight months or nine months on from doing HFOP in any meaningful way. And really, if we look at when I got started with POTA, it's only been six months and the last month or so I slowed down significantly. There's a couple of reasons, of course, but once the new radio comes, I'll be back on the air and I'm looking forward to closing out that kilo over at Brighton State.
Speaker 1:Once Yezu's taking your money and you can run with it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I just have to spend money to make you know. Yeah of believe it's on May 16th at 1130 to 1230. So it's right, in kind of the middle of the morning there, and Mike Case and Mark Torrigan are putting it on should be expecting from Parks on the Air right, Parks on the Air has been so traditionally well-organized. It has been such an excellent kind of promoter of the radio sport that we do every day. It's had such a huge transformative effect on this hobby. I can't wait to see what they're planning on talking about in that particular conversation.
Speaker 1:And see here, Jim, I thought you were going to this APRS State of the Union on.
Speaker 3:Friday, I might be there too. Is it at the same time?
Speaker 1:Don't tell me it is no no, it's room three at 310 on Friday. Well.
Speaker 3:I hope I run into all the folks that hate APRS there. Rory is back with us. Rory had a brief internet delay. Welcome back, rory. It's okay, that's excellent.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad my internet connection is of high quality at the north end of South Lyon. Where did you guys lose me? It looks like you guys are still talking forums.
Speaker 3:Yep, we just transitioned right into what forums we were looking forward to. I mentioned that I'm looking at the Parks on the Air, the Road Ahead Forum, which is on Friday afternoon. I'm really excited to see what that means. James was actually sharing that. On Saturday, a couple of the folks from the club that are big activators folks that are out there doing roves on the regular are going to be doing a presentation as well. I think we missed exactly what forum you were interested in, so why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 2:Definitely the POTO ones. I'm interested. You joke about the APRS one. It's titled APRS State of the Union. I am curious, you know, what are they going to talk about? Is there going to be a you know, any sort of change of APRS coming up? Or, you know, I doubt it's ever going to sunset. It's used for too many different things. But just, uh, I'm curious if there's anything new there. I may or may not get into that one. Uh, there's also at that similar time. Uh, there's one called fox hunting and transmitter hunting, which I don't know if either of you have been involved in a fox hunt.
Speaker 1:No, that's something I've talked about for the club. That I would love to do is an organized fox hunting event. I thought it'd be awesome.
Speaker 2:I think it's something we should do. I never the Milford Amateur Radio Club, which is just to the north of us here. I used to participate with them with those years ago. I still have my Plymouth Sundance so that was car number one. So it's been a number of years since I've done that. But it was car number one. So it's been a number of years, nice, since I've done that. But it was, it was a good time. So that's that's the forum there, for sure. And and the Friday session, saturday, it, it. There's a few different things. There's, of course, a system fusion session there you can go see is that, is that sticking around or not, which we know now.
Speaker 3:It's got the blessing.
Speaker 1:We know, now it is, it's got the blessing.
Speaker 2:Contesting forum as I'm getting more involved with that over time. I would be curious about that. Some of them are open-ended and, like I don't know where, I fell off the Internet world earlier I was discussing. The forums are a good way to get out of the heat if you're starting to get warm.
Speaker 2:So in a way I don't necessarily plan. I take a look at which ones might interest me and kind of have a absolutely want to go to and kind of want to go to. So if I'm wandering around and the back's starting to hurt and I'm getting too hot, I might go to one that I kind of want to go to.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of how I approach the forums. Yeah, if you're a new ham, don't sleep on the forums. They're a great time to go to. You actually learn a lot and if it's a topic you're interested in, you network a little bit because a lot of the presenters and speakers are accessible afterwards and you can walk up and ask them questions and it's a great experience to learn. A lot of people have the same questions. Yeah, yeah, a lot of people have the same questions you have.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's. You know, if you go, someone else is probably going to have a similar same question that you might have. And, uh, it's, it's. It's just a good way to to hear and be around other people that are, that are like-minded and the facets that interest you yeah, a couple of things here that I was also thinking about.
Speaker 3:Right, and I'm looking forward to the full experience. We've said before, this will be my first one. These guys have been there before Only my second, it's only James' second. But if we do see you guys there and if you hear us chattering amongst ourselves and that's usually how folks have picked up on us as a group is they're like that voice sounds familiar, you sound like the ornery folks on the Everyday Ham podcast and we're like that's us. We would love to see you, don't feel Brad, coming up and saying hello. We would love to meet you and know what you think of it so far and know what you think we could do better as we move forward. So I want to say that out loud. And two, don't forget your sunscreen. If it's as sunny as it's going to be, don't get that sunburn, cause, man, it'll be brutal the next day. I am you can obviously tell on this video a very sunburn prone kind of gentleman. So I will be, I will be spraying myself down before I get out there.
Speaker 1:There's no shame in the sun. Good shoes are imperative as well.
Speaker 2:If the forecast does change and it looks like it's going to be wet, definitely take shoes that you can be comfortable walking around in puddles and mud, because the flea market will get muddy. The grass areas will get muddy If you've parked in the parking lot. And if you've elected to not use the shuttle bus and park in the parking lot, that will be muddy. So definitely have footwear you're comfortable with in all day, for sure.
Speaker 1:So what do you guys think is going to be the hot ticket item of purchases at Hamvention? So last year it was the little thing, the Signal Stuff, Signal Stick. Those were selling like crazy. Everyone was buying every color and every variety under the sun. Any inkling of what you think will be this year?
Speaker 3:So I think that we already and Yesu, kind of upset the apple cart here by doing this a week early. I think they were looking to spend your money a week before.
Speaker 1:Hamvention, so you went broke so.
Speaker 3:I think that a lot of folks that were waiting probably spent a big old chunk and I know that I moved a couple of radios to make the FTX1 a possibility for me. It's not just magic that it shows up here so excited about that. But I am curious to see what else is there. I think Signal Stick will probably do excellent business again and I will tell you Great product. Yeah, I have their dual band. I have two of them, but I'm looking forward to buying an orange, and you'll know I love orange.
Speaker 1:There it is.
Speaker 3:One and a quarter meter signal stick for my rig, so I'm looking forward to buying one.
Speaker 2:This is a 220 here.
Speaker 3:Yep, and I might buy one of the signal strands as well. I know you could make one at home, but I just love the idea that they're offering it as a sort of like buy it and have it all fit right in the package, and it doesn't seem like it's too much money, it's like a couple bucks extra, so I'll probably add one in there, just as a sort of you know, shtf shit hits the fan type add-on for the kit, and if you've been after Pac-10, I heard the rumor is they'll have limited inventory there as well.
Speaker 3:That might be a reason to show up in the vendor booths before you go to the flea market.
Speaker 2:I'm going to look at that one more closely and decide if that's something I wanted to pick up. That was something on my list to research. I know you guys have talked about it and it might be something I want to add to my kit of stuff for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super portable, great build quality, very versatile. I have the 20-meter dipole Pac-10A. I got the NFED Halfwave Pac-10A.
Speaker 3:Two.
Speaker 1:Two NFED Halfwave Pac-10As I'm lucky enough that I was able to snag them when they went on sale twice.
Speaker 3:James is sponsored by Pac-10A apparently.
Speaker 1:I wish I'm kidding, we can all dream here. But no, they're a solid mobile antenna for POTA and other activities, so definitely something to. If you've been chasing one, maybe now's the time to go get one.
Speaker 3:It might be the opportunity, because every time I go to look, they are sold out on the website, so they seem to be an excellent product and one that folks definitely desire. I wanted to say something out loud, and it's not in the vein of acquiring anything knowledge or otherwise, so much as to say if you're a ham headed down to Dayton and you are planning on testing at Dayton.
Speaker 3:Good luck to you, my friend.
Speaker 3:You know what I suspect that you've been preparing for a week or more and you're a little bit nerves in throat, ready to go down there and test at Dayton. I really look up to the folks that can go do that at such a big event and be successful. So good luck to you if you're going to go do that testing, especially if you're going after the general or the extra the extra test being a little bit longer test, a couple more questions, focus you'll do well and good luck to you. And if you're a brand new tech and you've been even studying for a week and you feel like you just want to go do it and get involved, I hope you do well as well. And you feel like you just want to go do it and get involved, I hope you do well as well. So I just want to say that out loud. It's not a place that I could test well in. So for those folks that can make it work, good for you and I hope you are successful in your endeavors Yep, you got this.
Speaker 3:And shout it from the rafters. If you get it, let your club know, join a club. Let the folks know It'll be exciting and this is the perfect place to be excited about Radio Nerd stuff. So everybody will be very congratulatory if you make that ascension. Yep.
Speaker 2:So they do a decent job to separate the testing area from Hamvention. So it's actually located at a church across the street from the fairgrounds. So it is walkable or you can take a shuttle bus from the main entrance. They provide that all day long between the main entrance and the testing at the church across the street. So they do take into consideration that it is a severe environment to be testing in. And I did toy with the idea of maybe getting life in order to do it here, but I'm not that smart yet, so I won't be doing it. I won't be making the jump to extra.
Speaker 2:yet It'll happen. When it happens. It buys me a little bit more frequency and a little bit of whatever, but maybe the chance at a 1x2 call sign someday. That's about it, but I'll do it. I'll do it someday for sure, as we near the end of this thing.
Speaker 3:I think that we want to say out loud too this near the end of this thing. I think that we want to say out loud too this is an interesting month for Everyday Ham. I do think we are going to record a few shorts on site, so look forward to a couple of fun little get togethers from the crew here W8 Connects, rory K8JKU, james and myself, jim NHJRD. We're going to be on site and we're going to try to do a couple of recordings. We won't be pushing our way to the front of the line as a ham tube standard. We're going to wait our turn and hopefully we get an opportunity to meet some of you, talk to some folks that have cool equipment at the show and we want to bring you a couple of neat little features. So keep your eye on the channel if you're on YouTube and listening, and we will try to make those things available on the audio podcast where it makes the most sense, we might do a short recording.
Speaker 3:I just wanted to say that out loud. Know that there is some fun Dayton-related content coming and I understand that a month between content is a long time to wait, so hopefully we can make you guys happy. I look forward to seeing you all down there. James back over.
Speaker 1:Nope, I was going to say the same thing. I'm sure we'll probably do an audio podcast recording of a summary following up to Hamvention as well, just to capture our thoughts and what we're looking forward to next year even, but I guess I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Rory, before we go into formal closings, though, do you have anything you'd like to add? Any last comments?
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't. I'm confused that it's ending because, since I lost my connection, the timer tells me we're at 11 minutes, so I thought I had another, you know little while Definitely definitely hamventioncom, if you've not been there before, take a look, make a plan. Looking forward to meeting any and all of you that make it out there for sure, and we're hoping these two didn't jinx the weather.
Speaker 1:We'll just leave it at that, but as always, please like subscribe follow it at that, but, as always, please like, subscribe, follow and comment our videos please. So we have audio podcasts that we post in all major platforms, including Apple Podcasts, spotify and etc. And then we also post these video versions on YouTube. Jim mentioned already that we do have some mic check shorts that we're going to start releasing, including the more recent one of Rory for the Michigan Cuso party, so be sure to check those out as well. We are on Instagram at Everyday Ham Podcast, or Everyday Ham. What is it, jim? You'd think I would know this by now.
Speaker 3:You know what You're going to make me look bad.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you just search Everyday Ham Podcast and you will find it. Or visit EverydayHamcom, and all the links are posted there. We'll get better at this, I promise, uh, but with that, thanks everyone for joining us for episode five. We look forward to some hamvention coverage coming up here shortly. So thanks everyone. Have a great day 73s.
Speaker 3:We'll catch you on the next one.
