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
Hamvention 2025 Breakdown: What We Saw, What We Loved
The Dayton Hamvention 2025 delivered on every front as we explored Xenia's grounds with our South Lion Area Amateur Radio Club members in their distinctive yellow shirts. This year's highlights included the Kenwood TH-D750 triple-band mobile with its built-in D-STAR hotspot and accessibility features, Flex Radio's impressive Aurora series with integrated 500-watt amplifiers starting at $6,199, and our realization that premium ham equipment now commands significantly higher prices—sparking discussions about value, longevity, and manufacturer support.
Beyond the technology, Hamvention's true magic came through personal connections: chance encounters with podcast listeners, meeting Sebastian KI2D (developer of Ham2K Polo software), and our club's social events at Caesar Creek campground. Join us for more connections at the Michigan POTA meetup on June 7th at Fort Custer State Recreation Area, and share your experiences with TSA's new 100Wh lithium battery restrictions on our new Discord server at everydayham.com!
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/
Okay, everyone, welcome to a special edition of the Everyday Ham Podcast. Tonight we're going to talk about our hamvention overall impressions, feelings and what we saw. That was pretty awesome. I am James K8JKU. I'm joined here by Rory W8KNX and Jim N8JRD, as always. So how are you guys doing?
Speaker 2:We're doing great. So, Jim, first hamvention broke the whatever you break when you do something for the first time Broke the seal Broke.
Speaker 3:The seal Broke. The seal Broke. The bank. Keep it PG Go ahead.
Speaker 2:How was your first go at hamvention?
Speaker 3:Yeah, broke the seal, broke the bank, broke it all. It was excellent. And I will tell you guys, yeah, broke the seal, broke the bank, broke it all. It was excellent. And I will tell you guys, we knocked on wood before the hamvention.
Speaker 3:About the weather, I think, honestly, we got just excellent weather overall through the whole weekend.
Speaker 3:As far as I understand it, there have been much rainier hamventions and, despite being threatened by what was a pretty serious band of severe storms in the south part of Ohio and there were also some above us, we managed to eke out a bit of wind, a bit of heavy rain I think there might have been a couple of pea-sized pieces of hail for a minute or two in the campground, but overall, man, it was a nice day.
Speaker 3:Thursday I was down in the campground, it was beautiful, we had the air conditioning on, that's how warm it was and I can appreciate having a little early summer weather, living in Michigan all year and then Friday a little overcast, and we spent the whole day out in the flea market, which was my mecca. And then Saturday afternoon we had a little bit of wind, but another beautifully sunny day and we got a great club picture. So overall, guys. I mean it was an excellent first Hamvention as far as it's concerned. I think it does set a bar for me that will be hard to beat in the future, because May has such unpredictable weather in the Midwest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Hamvention as a social event for me, this was my favorite. As far as that's concerned I've been to back in the first phase of my ham career. I only went to one, back at Hera Arena, and this is my third here in Xenia. So a couple of the other ones were always one-day trips down, maybe one overnight crashing at a friend's camper and then hurrying up and going heading home the next day.
Speaker 2:But this year I did the full weekend experience, starting with the Four Days in May vendor event on Thursday night and then staying all the way through and heading home Sunday morning. So as far as social and networking and seeing all the people that I knew and people I didn't know and people I forgot about, it was excellent. As far as our club is concerned, our home club, the South Lion Area Amateur Radio Club here in South Lion, michigan, I think we were somewhere between 25 and 30 members strong at Hamvention and if any of you were at Hamvention and saw a bunch of weirdos in yellow shirts milling around together, on Saturday, which Rory would not stop complaining about when you wear yellow.
Speaker 2:I don't wear yellow, not anymore, at least. Yeah, so I broke any habit of wearing yellows, you know, somewhere in the early 2000s. But that's excellent experience seeing all the people and brainstorming with fellow hams and thinking about the purchases and talking to people. It's just always such a good time. James, what's on the top of your list from this one?
Speaker 1:No, it was a good time. Similar to you, second time at Hamvention, I really went down there to socialize and hang out with everyone. The club events were awesome. So, if anyone from the club is listening, thanks again for all your help in making those events pretty memorable. We did an off-site happy hour. We hung out at Hamvention together. We had a nice barbecue back at our campsite in Caesar Creek. Other than that, I just kind of walked around. I didn't buy too much. I got the FT5. I copied Rory on that. I got a GP3. We talked about putting a station up on my roof, so we'll have that video coming in the summer.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to that, yeah, and then also Get to see me climbing on the roof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And then also got the BioNno battery. I got a six amp hour battery because I heard that the TSA changed the requirements of what you're able to carry on with you down to 100 watt hours. So if you were to basically calculate that out, it's about 8.3, I believe amp hours is now the limit, and BioNno either sells a six or nine. So I got a six and a mobile charger. So if you're not aware, I know it still depends on the airline and approval, but it might be nice to pick one up. I always love Bioeno great company to work with, and they have a good deal set at Hamvention, so I picked one of those up as well. That.
Speaker 2:TSA situation is going to be very interesting and I'll be curious if anyone who's listening or watching this post in the comments, if you've had any experience with what TSA or the individual airlines are doing with that, because I personally have never flown with my ham equipment but at some point I will, but a lot of us, our friends, do, so I would be curious if anyone has had any experience, both good or bad on what's happening with that right now.
Speaker 1:It's also worth my 12 amp hour before. No, sorry Jim, I've flown with my 12 amp hour before, no problems. That was always my go-to and never even took it out of the bag. I'm curious what happens now, though, with the changes, and it'll take time for the regulations to kind of kick into every airport, but I'd suspect that they'll be pretty aggressive on it in the future, so maybe just keep that in mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to say two things here. One, the TSA experience is generally inconsistent between airports. So unfortunately, what you'll find is you may get through on the first go with your 12 amp hour that you've been traveling with for years and on the way back they may decide that that one's not coming with you on the ride. So that is what I think we have to be mindful of is, with those changes, if you want to make sure that you're going to make it back and to, or to and back, you really should take a look more closely. And it makes sense. We've seen far too many stories now where poorly constructed power banks and battery packs are combusting on the airline. And of course, we all know lithium fires are hard to extinguish. They need to burn themselves out in ways that can be very detrimental to a plane traveling experience.
Speaker 3:The other thought I had was, since we're on the BioNno topic, one of our club members, john NU8M, just actually had a sort of very positive experience with BioNno in a sort of backward way, which is to say he's been a longtime user of the BioNno batteries, as are many of our club members they have, I think. James, you have one, lewis N8LEK has one. I know that there are others in the club that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Shane KF8BWN has one. We got a lot of BioNno in the club that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Shane KF8BWN has one. We got a lot of BioNno in the club, right? John actually experienced a failure with one of his BioNno packs and he went over to the Hamvention booth and he said hey, you know, I just wanted to have a chat about it and he was just curious what might be the solution. And they said no problem, john, here's a brand new battery. They replaced it on the spot.
Speaker 1:They hand him a battery and they said Barely any questions asked.
Speaker 3:Nope, they said we'll send you a label when we get back to our office and you can send us back the failed pack, and we just want to make sure that you are back on the air. And I have to give them props. Honestly, it is a real high mark for BioNno to be that customer focused and I think that's an excellent experience. To say so, plus one to BioNno. I think that when we have those positive experiences with ham vendors that are smaller like that and I'm not saying BioNno is small by any means, but when we think about them in the broad picture, we have to make sure that we call those positive experiences out. So plus one for.
Speaker 3:BioNno.
Speaker 2:Good customer service goes a long way with me. I like hearing good stories and that's actually makes it more likely that I'll look at their product over someone else's in the future. That's always good and I'll be curious, I wonder if it'll be a situation where they'll get back with John on what the failure was or if it'll just kind of fade away. We'll have to ask him about that when we see him in a few weeks the next time. So a couple shout-outs for sure you thought of the BioNno thing. Certainly want to say hello to our friend Mark KD9UIC, a member of the Piglet amateur radio community out of Indiana. So he reached out to us on the comments and in our Discord. Feel free to join our Discord server. It's a slow start but we're there and we're looking forward to making a good conversation out of it.
Speaker 2:But Mark reached out to us and let us know that he would be staying in Caesar Creek along with many of us and we happened to run into him at the Four Days in May vendor night. I saw him walking by and I saw a call sign that looked familiar. So I had to quickly refer to my email because my memory is not as good as people think it is and I verified with myself that it was him. So I shouted over to him and he was very confused and startled. But he figured out who we were and came back and we had a good chat with him. So certainly cool.
Speaker 2:I really enjoyed looking over the website. I think we mentioned this in the in one of the other things we did, but the piglet amateur radio club there, their their website and their branding is on point. Looks like they have an excellent club and if I'm ever in Indiana I'm certainly going to look them up, whether it's for one of the things they do and I know I'm veering off a hamvention, but I digress, you know that's me. It looks like they're pretty active with CUSO parties and one of these years I'll want to do the Indiana CUSO party in Indiana, so I might look them up for that. Also, at the Four Days in May event we happened to see Sebastian KI2D, who is, in my opinion, royalty at this point. He is the developer of the.
Speaker 2:Ham2K Polo software that many of us are using to log POTA on our various devices. I have it on my iPad and on my iPhone and it was excellent to ch to chit chat with Sebastian. I took the opportunity to thank him for his exceptionally well-developed and well-maintained platform, which is free free to use and it's one of the best it's top notch and he's.
Speaker 2:He's constantly tweaking and taking people's comments, whether they're good or bad. He takes all feedback and puts whatever he can. He takes that feedback and uses it however he can and I think he does a tremendous job. So it was excellent to say hello to him. Jim has his sticker. He gave us a couple stickers there. I think he was surprised to. He was very humble, you could tell talking to him he was surprised that I. We were very excited to meet him. I think he was surprised to. He was very humble. You could tell talking to him he was surprised that.
Speaker 3:I. We were very excited to meet him, I think, and he was like what, who are these guys?
Speaker 1:And why are they so stoked about it? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:When you develop something like that, you got to that's. I was glad to talk to him for a few minutes. Talk to him for a few minutes uh, a couple other locals, lewis uh n8lek and mike w8 msc both uh, when we were walking around dayton, mentioned that they uh spent their drives down to dayton listening to the podcast. So thanks you guys for listening and we appreciate the the feedback as well. So certainly uh good to have some of our local friends and and a growing network of friends all over the place uh to find this podcast, find the Everyday.
Speaker 3:Ham, yeah, I'll call out one more, and it was just in passing which I guess. I have a sort of unique voice and I'm also a very loud person, even in a loud building.
Speaker 3:A young gentleman walked up to me and he said hey, do you guys do a podcast? And I said, yep, that's us. We did get hats made, by the way, they have the Everyday Ham pig on them and our logo on the back, but it was not the day I was wearing it, so I said, yeah, that was us, and James and Rory are here too. I pointed to you guys and he said oh, I've been listening to you guys and I just wanted to congratulations, congratulations.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:From both James and Rory and myself. Congratulations, my friend, and welcome to the ham radio experience. I'm sure you'll quickly ascend to general at this clip, but he was just very excited to be there, immersed in the ham experience, and it was really nice to have him stop and say that he appreciated the podcast and he had heard us talking about how testing was challenging there and he appreciated the sort of recognition for those folks that can go and test in a really chaotic environment even though the church is across the street. It's a lot of excitement. Right, it could be a really tough place to test, but that gentleman did it. Good for you, my friend. We hope to hear you on the air and if you are that person that bumped into me I apologize, I have forgotten your first name Throw your call, sign out in the video below and I would love to make sure that we get you some recognition. I'll send you a QCell card too if you'd like that, but nice to make your acquaintance out there. So a lot of fun recognition.
Speaker 3:I bumped into another gentleman out in the marketplace as well, out on the flea market on the track, and he recognized me, asked me he was from Ohio. He said hey, are you podcast guys? I said we are indeed, and he said well, I'm a big dog enthusiast. He recognized Cash, my poodle, who was out with me the second day, and we sat and had a little chat about dogs and poodles and podcasts. So good to hear some community feedback. Even though this is a tiny little podcast, if you're listening, we really do appreciate you. We love hearing you guys and, honestly, the comments below each of these videos help drive what we talk about next. So awesome to hear you guys, yep.
Speaker 1:So I guess, moving into a little bit about and also really quickly for me also, congratulations to anyone that attempted to test at Hamvention, similar to Jim, and that passed. The attempt is awesome and the passing is great as well, so congratulations to all that that were there.
Speaker 3:James, you had a pass rate for Hamvention. What was it Actually?
Speaker 2:I think it was Rory. Rory, what did you have?
Speaker 1:I believe they posted 53% of people who tested at Ham mentioned past left with, so the amount of people that are there.
Speaker 3:Good job, Honestly it just goes to show it's a tough environment. So if you were one of those 53%, good for you, you did a hell of a job.
Speaker 1:And if you tried, good on you to try.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely To be fair, I'd assume, since it's there and they do do it for free, by the way, some people for free, by the way, some people may just toss their hats in Right. And I had considered that if I was in the mood and had the time I was debating, going over there to make the attempt at the extra. But the day before, the day before the invention, I took a online test and all my hopes and dreams went out the window. I said it's time to time to do some studying before I buckle down, yeah, yeah, if this guy can pass the extra you can pass the extra.
Speaker 2:That's what you tell me, and I know some other folks. I know some other folks who are not as talented as you that have passed it, so I don't know if that's a positive or a negative thing.
Speaker 1:Thank you, question mark.
Speaker 2:Take it however you wish.
Speaker 1:Backhanded compliment. Yeah, all right, let's move on to a little bit of our takes on the actual Hamvention. So we did a video, we should point out, while we were in the middle of that rainstorm and our other club member was hanging from his canopy trying to hold it down.
Speaker 3:Call out to WAMTV. Poor Mike.
Speaker 1:He did a good job. He survived. We were recording an episode with Jason KN4AL. He got his 400th activation while leading up to Hamvention, which was a big achievement.
Speaker 1:And we also talked about our field day experience, so walking around the flea market and all our shopping we did that day, so we'll link it up here. There'll probably be a card when we get to that point. But we also saw some new releases. So on Saturday we walked around the main exhibit halls. We saw Flex Radio have an update with the Aurora. We saw the new Kenwood Radio still in the glass bubble, so we didn't really get a hands-on, but we were able to look at it in detail and talk to the rep.
Speaker 2:That's right. They gave us a flyer. That was the best it could be.
Speaker 1:They gave us a flyer, yep and some good details. And then we also saw the FTX one in person, hands on. They had it on display. So where, where do you think you guys would like to start with our overall experiences?
Speaker 3:Let me take it. Let me, okay, go ahead. I was just going to say let me, let me take the FTX one, Cause it's on tip of my tongue here.
Speaker 2:All right, I just want to, I just want to.
Speaker 3:I want guys. It is true, FTX1 landed at Hamvention. It was there for everybody to poke. Optima was there as well. John was there. It was nice to see John in person. I even said hello, John, and he waved back and it was very pleasant.
Speaker 1:Come on the podcast, John. We'd love to have you.
Speaker 3:We would love to have you Open invitation.
Speaker 3:But it was nice to see the radio there, right, it was the first time we were able to get hands on that radio and, uh, they were very open. We powered it down, we disconnected all the wires from the back of the optima. We saw how it connected. We like understood it with with all the fingers. We poked all the buttons, we powered it back up. But I will say there were ftx ones on site, as we predicted, and you were able to walk up and buy one, not the optima, but you could buy a on-site at Hamvention, and you heard it here. We expected that that was going to be the case.
Speaker 3:The other thing that we were speculating and I think that is likely going to ring true as well is that this morning Optima's have shipped to those who have pre-ordered them from the Ham Radio Outlet. So call out and a shout out to Ham Radio Outlet for being the first to ship. It seems like in the domestic area here Looking forward to getting mine. It looks like Wednesday is the day for me and James is also on the Wednesday train. So we've got a couple of Optima's. They are coming now, and if you were waiting for one and you had heard rumors that say that August was going to be the month or June or July.
Speaker 3:Unless you're way down the list, you're going to see an Optima much sooner than that, I hope. So really exciting news. I don't want to spend too much time on that Optima, but it is cool. We are going to have another mic check video coming with an unboxing of an Optima, so keep your ears and eyes tuned. But over to Rory, who I think has some thoughts on Kenwood because those folks were gracious when we stepped into their booth.
Speaker 2:We had an excellent experience at the Kenwood booth. We basically walked up and I almost expected we were just going to look at the thing and walk off but forget our own opinion and move on. But the gentleman and I would have loved to have gotten his name to give him a shout out.
Speaker 3:He was such a nice guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he came over and talked to us with no concern. He wasn't interested in whether we were buyers or not buyers, whether we had the money for it or wouldn't have the money for it. He approached us with great detail as much as he could give anyway and was open to all the whatever questions we asked your name. Perhaps questions at some of them I, I wasn't going to do that, but uh yeah I tried not to ask those questions, but you know that's.
Speaker 2:That's how. By the end of the day, they're all inane, I'm sure. But um, one of the things we learned there is that that will likely not ship until the fourth quarter of the year. Um, I think you said november and one of the best at best yeah it sounds like they were shooting for for summer.
Speaker 2:I don't think it was ever going to make dayton from the sounds of it, but no, um, it sounds like, and I don't recall what. Which component, if he even said I don't think he specified. He didn't specify the component? No, but there was a component that their supplier, kenwood supplier, essentially vanished. Yep, um, it was and was. No, they were no longer able to source.
Speaker 1:Took them back to design. They had to go back and re-engineer parts.
Speaker 2:So whatever this was, it set them back. They had to re-engineer, find, find it, find a supplier and figure out how to do it with the new, the new items. So that that set them behind and that's unfortunate. But I still expect a a high-quality product from Kenwood. So a couple things we did learn.
Speaker 2:We knew it was going to be 2-meter, 220, and 440. It sounds like 220 will have some power behind it. He wouldn't confirm because he probably couldn't for sure, but he said it might be 20 watts, it might be 50 watts, but it's not the 1 or 2 watt that some radios put out on 220s. So the 220 community is very excited to have a radio coming that has some power on 220, because there seems to be some interest in the general ham community, two 20 in our possession and people are wanting to have radios that that work. Two, 20 again, it's something I'm certainly looking to uh to do here in the near future for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, he also and I'm I was reading over the flyer he gave us. He also confirmed that it will have a D star hotspot on board. The radio will have able to be connected wireless, wireless networking and be able to have a hotspot on board. So for D star users that's a big deal. I've been a long time D star user and and to be able to have that hotspot built in, well, it just means I need to be put, build a bridge, a D star bridge, from D star to all stars so I can get on our local non-star repeater. So that's something I actually already started reading about. Nice Another thing to do, but definitely looking forward to it Full duplex on this radio.
Speaker 1:Which is exciting. That's another full duplex radio on the market, which is great.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's another full duplex radio on the market, which is great. Yep, that is a big deal for a number of reasons, whether you're a satellite or just a person who prefers to have that capability for whatever reason. Usb-c for connections I don't think it was clear definitely for connecting to the computer. Yep, looked like Ethernet cable. They were showing it with a shield, shielded ethernet cable between the control head and the body. That's nice. That makes it so easy. You're not having to source a proprietary cable to do your extension. Another big deal, of course, the speaker um in the in the control head, so showing on the camera here, because this is good, good quality video to show a picture of a picture. But the, the speaker um in the control head, eliminates the need to have an external speaker. This radio will be in my car with kenwood audio with kenwood audio.
Speaker 1:Kenwood audio speaker. It's a front.
Speaker 3:It's a front firing speaker in the bottom right hand corner of the head for the folks that are listening in the audio here, right. So the the the left hand side of the unit is mostly screen and it has a big sharp color screen that is very bright, and on the right side a nice-sized speaker that's front-firing. And I'll tell you what I'm only 41 years old and I can appreciate having the audio up at my head level these days?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely Because especially when I'm trying to pick out call signs. Having it fed into my ear helps a hell of a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were all surprised by the size of the control head Once we saw it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it was a solid brick it's.
Speaker 2:it's larger than we expected. So anyone familiar with the ID 50, 100 it is which this radio will replace in my car.
Speaker 1:It is it is slightly larger and all all dimensions from the ID5100 controller. Yeah, and maybe, if you're not a UC5100 Nintendo Switch to put it in, maybe you got kids or your own Switch at home. It was about the size of a.
Speaker 3:Nintendo Switch Of just the tablet right, Of just the tablet part.
Speaker 1:I mean a little bit into the Joy-Con side as well. So about that size it's a sturdy size but it's beautiful looking.
Speaker 2:And one last thing on this that I read also is for the visually impaired community. They're excited about this radio because it does not have soft keys, All the buttons are real buttons and it also does have voice guidance on board to give voice guidance to the user to call out what the radio is doing and what frequency you're on, and so forth. So our blind and visually impaired ham friends are exceptionally excited about having a new radio that they should be able to operate independently and very easily.
Speaker 3:I think it goes without saying, then, that this is not a touchscreen radio. Is that right, rory?
Speaker 2:That is what I'm understanding.
Speaker 1:yes, and we did mention it's still going through. They mentioned type acceptance right now and that process they're hoping clears. I think they said at the end of next month was the target.
Speaker 2:So, of course, price there's no price. I'm going $1299.
Speaker 3:What are your thoughts? Radio with it. This radio looks like it's going to have way more than that, with the triple bands and the Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth, all the stuff built in, and the RASP got rid of Bluetooth, which was standard on the 500, and the price went up. So there's no doubt in my mind. This is a thousand plus dollar radio for a mobile. I think it's going to be premium. It's going to feel premium. I think that it's going to be one of those radios that is going to be extremely desirable, going to feel premium. I think that it's going to be one of those radios that is going to be extremely desirable and I expect it to command the price.
Speaker 1:What's your?
Speaker 3:price I'm guessing $1099 here $1, Bob?
Speaker 1:No, I'm kidding $1?. You say $1099. You said $1200? $1299. I'm going to say $1500.
Speaker 3:Okay, golly.
Speaker 1:I'm taking the high end, I think, with the price of electronics by the time this ships and they say November, but let's say 2026, I think $1,500. Especially the fact they had to go back to drawing on a component.
Speaker 2:There is some thought there. I mean, you are paying the Kenwood premium, which everyone knows is a thing. Anyone who's bought the D74 or d75 handheld knows that's a thing. You're paying for three bands, you're playing for d star, which at this point I don't think should be a premium, but it is a premium to have um and the tnc.
Speaker 3:It's a tnc capable radio as well aprs capable aprs capable.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of things. So I I'm hoping it's not more than $1,299. That's how much I'll have in the envelope ready to spend on this radio. But I look at it. You know it's going to be the ID5100 in my Jeep now I should have figured this out. It's 10 or 12 years old at this point and it's been riding around in my car since the beginning. So well, two vehicles now actually, so this one will likely be in the car for just as long. So you figure the usage I'm going to get out of it. There's some value in that and that makes it feel a little better to me for sure.
Speaker 3:So I want to pause real quick here and I just want to say out loud I think that in the last six months we've seen a serious step change in cost for ham radio brand new, uh, and I believe that this is this is what we are going to expect moving forward. Um, yesu raised the price on their their top end mobile uh. Yesu launched a multi-function radio in the ftx that is close to two thousand dollars if you buy the full package. Uh, you've got all kinds of radios launching now and the price tags are higher. Guys. I've seen a lot of complaining about the price of the FTX One.
Speaker 3:Get ready, because I do think this is the new market that we're living in with electronics, with the challenges that we have between trade agreements, and I just want to say it out loud we like talking about new stuff here. We're not rich folks on this podcast, but the reality of this hobby is, when you want more things packed in these small units, we are going to pay for them, and I do expect that this is going to garner a sort of negative response. But the answer is I think the D750 is going to be an expensive mobile radio If you thought that the 510 landed and 700 bucks was too much for your car. Well, get ready, because I think Kenwood's going to be dropping a bomb on you here. So I just want to say it out loud.
Speaker 3:I think that we've gotten some really interesting commentary around. Yeah, it's not worth it, guys. Radios are not getting cheaper at this point and we keep getting more and more packed into these radios. Manufacturers are trying to fill every desire that our little ham radio hearts have. So I think that if we keep asking for more, we're going to end up paying for it. So I just want to say it out loud, because we've had some really fun commentary on cost of radio lately.
Speaker 1:But I think Rory's right though. If you're looking to upgrade a radio that you've had in your vehicle for a lot of years, this is at least a radio worth investing. Again, we haven't had hands-on, but from the specs and the initial under the glass impression, it's at least a radio worth your consideration, as that one upgrade that will last you a long time Absolutely, I mean. So keep that in mind as well. It has legs for life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say this is a five, six-year radio. I keep a vehicle for five-plus years. At this point, vehicles are more expensive as well. When I put a mobile rig in, I expect it to last and I also hope and this is something that I think is a sidebar from this if we see radio costs increase, I hope that we're going to see some warranty and guarantee support for these radios. If I'm going to pay $1,200, I hope Kenwood's ready to stand behind that radio for five years. Right when they deliver that radio I hope there's three or five-year warranties that come along with it. That might be pie in the sky, but if I'm going to pay that kind of money, I'm hoping that we see better support from our manufacturers. I've seen a lot of really good support from these small companies that are stepping up and doing the right thing. It's time for the big three to do the same thing with the money going up in these things. So I digress a little bit on the hamvention stuff, but I just wanted to say that out loud because we've gotten a lot of feedback in the last couple of deliveries of our podcasts around cost of radio and you can do it for cheap guys If the THD750 is not in your price range, there are a number of other options.
Speaker 3:Don't go get a THD750. Maybe that'll be your second radio or your third right. Don't think that you have to go right to the top. There are so many good options out there. Go explore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. And then the other big maybe switching gears off Kenwood for a moment is the new Aurora from Flex Radio. Flex Radio.
Speaker 3:Flex Radio.
Speaker 1:Which maybe is a future radio in Jim's home, and I'll let others explain the technology that are on this podcast way better than I can. However, it offers a 500-watt SDR transmitter, so basically the amplifier is no longer, it's built into the radio, so it's an all-in-one unit and it kind of does away with the traditional mosfet type designs, offers a more efficient package and again all in that same 6400 look and feel that we had the new flex radio design software is on there. Pretty decent price for a radio that is.
Speaker 3:Uh, I'd have to go back and look at the prices here, but 6,199 for the five 10, which is going to be your base radio for the AU five 10. That's, that's the base radio for the Aurora. Um, and a couple of things here. Yeah, a hundred percent agree. Uh, think about putting together a 500 watt base station rig right now. Uh, you think about what the cost of the base station is, and then the amplifier to go alongside it to get to 500 Watts. Uh, $6,100 is a big chunk of change, but, uh, it's all in one box. Not bad for what you're getting, though, and it plugs into a standard outlet, not requiring you to wire up your shack for two 40,. Uh, with 30 amps plus, right, you're able to plug this guy into a standard 15, 20 amp outlet and get full 500 watt output out of it.
Speaker 1:I think full duty cycle as well. They had a demonstration there at the convention with the keyer down pressed and they were inviting you to come up and put your for hours at full power, inviting you to come up and put your hand on it, not the dummy load.
Speaker 2:They had a nice little sign there. Don't touch the dummy load. Don't touch that.
Speaker 1:But you could put your hand on the unit. They had heat guns and thermal guns and all sorts of ways for you to test it yourself. And I mean it was I mean it's it was impressive stuff. I know a lot of people have opinions on Flex Radio, but you know good on them. This is definitely some innovation and maybe also kind of shifting the game of how radios are designed in the future as well.
Speaker 3:I think the amplifier has some magic in it, and I say magic in a sort of like I'd like to understand it better. I don't yet understand fully the high efficiency transmitter.
Speaker 3:I think there's some tricks there that they're playing to call it 500 watts, which is to say we're getting three or three or more decibels above, like the standard 100 watts of talk power without that distortion. But I'd be curious what they mean and really understand. You know, like when we measure power, how does that look? I will say this out loud to the 510 and the 520, 530 range, which are the step-ups from the 510, that are going to be quite a bit more money, I think. As you add more features like ATU and additional slices, these are going to map pretty much one-to-one with the 8000 series that was just released.
Speaker 3:So James had mentioned the 6000 series. You guys, if you're Flex Radio folks, know that 6000 was recently replaced. They were shipping pre-orders early this year and you were probably waiting with bated breath to get your $8,000 if you had already put your money down. The same thing is happening with the Aurora series, but they've done a little bit, I think, more aggressive sort of. If you're willing to put it all down up front, you're going to get the front of the line If you're going to put part of your pre-order money down half down, then you're going to be in the second wave of these guys that are pre-ordering.
Speaker 3:So it's a really interesting approach and I guess it goes to show if you have some investment in putting the money towards Flex Radio, which is again a small company making a fairly low volume unit I don't mean anything bad by that. I think that they're doing an excellent job here, if you're willing to buck up. They're claiming that by the end of the year you may have an Aurora in your shack, which that's an aggressive timeline, but we did see two of them at least functioning at the show, which was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have feelings about that three-tier registration system.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I don't know why I do.
Speaker 1:I mean, they can do whatever they like and if people are going to opt in, then they'll opt in. Sure, it's an expensive radio and I know that one of their big sells was two things. One remote stations. 500 watts in a remote station is definitely a huge benefit.
Speaker 3:Without an extra unit, right Like 500 watts in one box that you can plug in anywhere.
Speaker 1:One box, plug in anywhere, standard power and we'll put out 500 watts with a heavy duty cycle. That's perfect for a remote station. The other thing I do agree with them on is de-expeditions. Again, taking a standard powered 120 watt unit radio, 500 watts on a de-expedition with high duty cycle for digital and SSB and every other mode that they will operate, that is impressive and I do think if it is again I wasn't operating it and I'm not sure what it is but if Flex has a great reputation, if they were pulling it off, fantastic, that's amazing and maybe it is a shift also further in the technology world here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm excited by it. It is unlikely to ever make it into my shack. I mean, here's the brass taxes. I have a 101 MP sitting on my desk right now. It's 200 watts and I don't have enough antenna for 500, let alone 1,000 watts. So I understand that competition-level radios like this belong in certain places where you have much more antenna than you do radio and your tower is probably 20 or 30 grand, your radio is probably five and so five is a small proportion. I have an inverse proportion of radio to antenna here in the yard and I understand that. But I like the. I like the premium feel the 101 mp. I'm a yesu fan boy, you guys know that through and through. So I like operating. It's an awesome radio. So with all that being said, right, I do think there's a flex. In my future I'm likely to be a flex 6400 atu buyer on the used market.
Speaker 1:I'm looking to spend. The prices are only going to get better. That's right.
Speaker 3:I'm looking to spend $1,200 or $1,500 and put a 6400 because I want to play with a couple of slices, I want to have a little bit of remote capability and I am very much interested in understanding Flex radio as a company and as a software package better before I put the big money into an Aurora. So I think that's probably two radios down the line for me, if I'm being real honest with myself. But it was exciting and I also will say out loud the gentleman that walked us through the Aurora also extremely helpful he came up.
Speaker 3:He made no assumptions of our level of operator or otherwise. We were wearing a couple of South Lion Area Amateur Radio Club shirts. We're no YouTube.
Speaker 1:Wearing matching uniforms we weren't recording.
Speaker 3:We weren't stuffing the camera in his face and saying, hey, we're with Everyday, ham, what can you tell us about the Aurora? We were just there as consumers, right? And he was like.
Speaker 2:What would you like to know?
Speaker 3:Three guys with yellow shirts and a poodle, that's right, and Cash was there on the second day.
Speaker 1:Wow, we must have looked amazing, that's all. I can say about that.
Speaker 3:Well, they were graced with cash as presidents, and he's an amazing dog Anyway, he was. He was again very, very willing to let us poke the buttons. Aurora was there, software was operating. We were able to click the buttons if we wanted to. He talked us through some of the cool stuff that he thought was neat. We asked him some questions about how it compared to the 8,000 series. So again, I think I had some really positive vendor experiences with the booths that I stopped and talked at. It was really nice to see that again with Flex Radio and I'm excited I do believe there's a Flex Radio in my future.
Speaker 1:I could totally see it. Sorry, shout out to the name aurora also my daughter's middle name, also named after my wife's grandma. So they got the naming convention right and that they all said super cool stickers they did, I got.
Speaker 3:I got it somewhere around me here, so like a foil sticker that said aurora, with the alien green on there. It was really cool yeah, also shout out.
Speaker 2:If we're talking about the vendor experience, we also, after we left flex, we went overcon, that's right and we had a good chat with the fellow there and had some hands-on time with the Icon 7760. That was good to see in person and the gentleman there as well was very, very available, very happy to answer any questions. Let us play. I wanted to pick the thing up and somehow he knew that because I wanted to see how heavy it was.
Speaker 3:The head right, the head unit, wanted to pick the thing up and and somehow he knew that because I wanted to see how heavy it was and the head, right the head, the control head, yeah, and he invited me to, uh, to pick it up and and it was tethered to the desk, but with enough room that you could pick it up the, uh, the 7760, if, if somehow I had the station magically to support that with antennas and infrastructure would be very high on my list.
Speaker 2:I I wouldn't be surprised, j Jim, though, to get a used Flex in your shack at some point. That absolutely makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've gone back and forth. They offer such a variety of as Flex does we should speak to Flex. Flex offers such a variety of single slice, double slice, and some of the older ones are becoming quite affordable. So I think it's a way to dip your toe in that SDR, but remote controllable SDR in a way that perhaps was not really available to us two years ago. And we just said radio is getting expensive. Boy shop the used market. There's some pretty good deals on the used stuff, so pretty exciting. And I agree with you, icom, I didn't get quite as close up with the 7760.
Speaker 3:At that time I was showing off the poodle to a couple of other reps that had made their way over from the booth and were more interested in talking dogs than they were radios. I loved it and cashed it too, but I missed out on the ICOM experience. But I would have loved to see it. And James walked away from it and he said man, that's a slick radio, that's a really slick radio. He was pretty wowed by it, how it operated, how it felt.
Speaker 3:It's really hard to tell in such a crowded environment. You know how does the front end reject? How does the radio handle busy environments like that, because none of these things are hooked up in any meaningful way to good antennas at the show. Right, and that, for me, is perhaps one of the things that makes these shows really tricky. Right, how do you show a radio, which requires a good antenna, at a show like this? And that's why remote is way easier to show at these things. I understand I would like to see more of that, but it was fun to see all three of them. I also want to say this out loud right, when you go to a show like this, you're likely to gravitate to the things that are the halo products from each vendor. Right, we're talking about tonight the Flex Aurora, which is a $6,000 radio. We're talking about the Optum, which is a $2,000 radio. Now we're talking about the 7760. And you're like Everyday Ham, do you guys just look at the best I almost said best shit the best stuff?
Speaker 1:The answer is we look at it all. I did Good call.
Speaker 3:I hope you guys are all adults out there. I appreciate you listening. We do look at all the best stuff, but really when you go to these shows it's an opportunity to see the things that you're unlikely to have a chance physically to operate any other way, and so it's the excitement, it's the way to allow us to see what's coming.
Speaker 3:Because where does the technology in the less expensive radios come from, guys? It trickles down from the big top radios, right, and when we do the R&D on these radios and we develop a circuit that performs well, slowly we bring that thing down in price, and then suddenly it's available at a much more reasonable price point for us to buy in a cheaper radio, a smaller radio.
Speaker 1:It's like race cars right, drive on Sunday, or what is it? Race on Sunday, drive on Monday. Eventually, the technology trickles down a little bit, and who doesn't like to look at nice things? We're at a show.
Speaker 3:That's right. I know we were trying to keep this one quick, because this is a sort of recap of our whole hamvention experience. We got about five more minutes. What do you guys have to say?
Speaker 2:I have one more vendor I'd like to touch on.
Speaker 3:Let's do it Shoot Lightning round.
Speaker 2:That is BuddyPool. So people talk about a product that's also I don't want to say controversial, but it's a product that not everyone likes. But I have been a BuddySick user for four or five years now and I did pick up the BuddyPool Deluxe Package new from the BuddyPool table. Jim on the other handuxe package, new from the buddy pole table. Jim, on the other hand, picked up one from the flea market table, um, classic which somehow feels so fitting for the two of you right how those paths went, but yeah so I, I had been, I had been.
Speaker 2:This is a purchase I'd been looking at for for a couple years and this year it was time to bite, and definitely you know. Another shout out to Chris W6 HFP, the owner of Buddy Bowl, I certainly. I went to the table and I wasn't really asking any questions, but he started chatting me up on how do I use it and what do you know, what are, what are my objectives with the antenna? And I told him that I've had the Buddy Stick and been successful with that and looking forward to just improving on that. And I told him I said you know, I am the person that talks positively about your product.
Speaker 2:I have people tell me, oh, it's, it doesn't work for me or oh, it's too difficult to tune. And and my my answer to that is the person probably two things they didn't try and they didn't have an antenna analyzer. Because with the, with the, any of the buddy pole products, you pretty much need an antenna analyzer and you have to be willing to learn the antenna and learn the various uh configurations to put it in for it to do what you want it to do. Um, I don't remember the exact name. Last year at hamvention I picked up buddy pole in the field. It's just a small small book and that opened my eyes to different ways to set up the antenna and one of the reasons I did make the purchase this year. So looking forward to getting out maybe next weekend over the Memorial Day long weekend and playing with the antenna. So that was my last shout out for sure for a vendor on Hamvention.
Speaker 1:Yeah plus Go ahead, James I was going to say, if you've never been to Hamvention and you're curious, it's a very friendly environment to come and ask questions and learn about things from the vendors themselves directly. I think that's one takeaway you can have from this podcast, and it's also BuddyPoll in the Field by Scott Anderson and NE1RD, so it's available on the Buddy Pull website if you're interested.
Speaker 2:Yep, and it's a pocket-sized book. It's something you can take and deploy with you. I wish it was on the desk for a long time, but I think it's actually in the living room when I was looking at it.
Speaker 3:I just looked it up because I was also curious. I did buy the buddy pole. I uh will tell you that rory is a a peddler of buddy pole and I sold my chelagance uh this morning, a jpc which is the imported version. I essentially a copy of it. I sold all of my gear and I have switched over to buddy pole completely. So I am excited, I, in feeling the gear pulling it out. Uh, it all feels quality, right. Yeah, it's solid.
Speaker 3:I had a really positive interaction. Even though I went and bought some of my gear from the ham swap out in the field, I brought it back into the Buddy Paul booth and I said, hey, I bought the triple ratio ballon, can you tell me how I might deploy that with my antenna? And I had it sitting there and he's like, yeah, no problem man. He's like, even if you didn't buy it from us, we'd love to chat with you about it. So it was really cool, uh, for them to be willing to have a little conversation. Uh, and I plan on ordering some more parts. I'm pretty much, uh, this summer is going to be the the buddy pull summer for me here.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm gonna be running that with you now, huh, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 3:I'm not a wire antenna guy, so it'll be buddy dipole most of the summer for me on tripod, and it'll be with the FTX. So it'll be really interesting to see how POTA does on that combo.
Speaker 1:Hot Girl Summer was last year, and now we're on to Buddy Pole Summer. Got it, Buddy Pole Summer baby.
Speaker 2:That's a change. The one thing you will miss, Jim, from the off-brand or whatever you want to call it Shelligans or whatever you want to call it Chelegans.
Speaker 2:Those coils have the sliding thing to choose the level of coil you wanted to select. The buddy pole does not, and it has the screw-in taps that you have to move somewhat manually. That will be a change for you, but I'll tell you this. I have, I believe, three or four of those semi-permanently placed on my coil now for my buddy stick and I don't move them. I just select the one I want for whichever band I'm doing. So you'll just pre-tune it and you'll be used to it pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:That'll be a change, for sure for you right away.
Speaker 3:The funny thing with the sliders was once I had established them in their position especially because I run mostly 20 meter, of course, in the park and run it in the dipole configuration they always were clicked into the same spot. I had marked it with a little permanent marker on the coil so they never moved. My suspect is the first couple of times it gets set up I'll probably be fine tuning by moving that up or down that coil. Just a hair and it was operative. You do benefit with having a good antenna analyzer for a buddy pole setup because it's so flexible that it affords you the ability to set it up a little bit incorrectly. You could do it without, but let me tell you it makes it way better and you can get in some super excellent SWR readings where you're putting out better power.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can get it perfect. If you have the patience with it, you can get it perfect. I leave one of the coil taps set for 40, one set for 20, and then a third that I move depending whether I want to do 10 or 15. That's how I do mine.
Speaker 3:I had a lot of fun at Hamvention guys. It was a great first year yeah.
Speaker 1:I loved it and thanks, Jim, also for hosting the barbecue again at your camper there.
Speaker 2:Thanks to you and Becca for having us crash your pad Certainly hosting the barbecue again at your camper there. Thanks to you and Becca for having us crash your pad, certainly a shout out to the two of you for having 30 of your best friends over several nights in a row, and then one note before we do the where to find us and socials.
Speaker 1:So we have the Michigan POTA meetup coming up here June 7th at Fort Custer State Recreation Area near Augusta, michigan, from 11 to 3 pm. So if you're in the area, you want to drive up whatever makes you happy. It's going to be a pretty cool meetup. Mike Case did mention that we are going to have some POTA tumblers to give away. He got some freebies from the POTA booth at Hamvention just for this occasion. So if a tumblr will get you there for the raffle, then by all means. Now is your time.
Speaker 3:My first attendance was last year at Sleepy Hollow and it was the first time I met both. Well, first time I met James Rory didn't make it to that one, but it was awesome to see everybody, so I'm going to be there, James is going to be there. James is going to be there, and Rory, I believe, and we're going to drag him out there for at least one of the evenings.
Speaker 1:And we may record the June episode there. We haven't quite decided yet what our schedules allow, so it'll either be on the same Thursday of that first week of Wednesday, as we normally release, or be patient with us. There may be a slight delay, as we were, you know, post a couple of days after normally do, since we may be together there. So we'll let you know. Otherwise, thanks everyone for attending. If no one has any last before we do that, any last comments from either of you before we go into closing?
Speaker 3:Just a reminder. We added Discord to our cadre of things that you can connect with us on. We've had a few join. We did just get started, so feel free to join, jump in the conversation. It's a friendly place. Don't feel like.
Speaker 3:If it's a little bit quiet there for the first couple of weeks, it's a big deal. We just want you guys to jump in there because I imagine at some point you'll see something that you have a good opinion on and we would love to hear it. There is an opportunity there as well, under the pod chat, to talk about these episodes, what you liked, what you didn't like, give us feedback so that we can keep building it in. And I just wanted to plug that Discord, because that is brand new this month to the Everyday Ham. I also wanted to say we're really close to 200 subs on YouTube and that's awesome.
Speaker 3:It's been a nice slow little roll up to it. We knew that with six episodes in, we would have a few of you listening and hearing the feedback already. We're excited to see that. So if you like what you're hearing, please click the subscribe button here on the YouTube. If you haven't checked us out on YouTube and you're listening to us on the pods that you're downloading on Apple or Spotify or otherwise awesome, do what you like to do. We don't want you to force anything, but we just appreciate the community support. It's what lets us keep doing this thing and we're looking forward to doing the next one.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So you can find us for all of that, the Discord link and where to find the podcast stream and a link to our YouTube, everydayhamcom. Our Instagram is everydayhampodcast, our YouTube is at everydayham. And again, the Discord link is there on all the sites. We put them in the comments and descriptions now. So wherever you go, go find it. But we've gotten a lot of good comments. We try to respond to all the comments we can as well. So again, please comment. We love it. We love seeing them. I get excited every time I see an email that you got a new comment. So, thank you, like and subscribe as well. And with that, thank you everyone and we'll see you in June 73, guys 73.
