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
Field Day Disappointment? Why We Think ARRL Needs to Evolve (+ FTX1 Final Update)
What happens when the "Super Bowl of Amateur Radio" meets poor band conditions? The Everyday Ham team breaks down their 2025 ARRL Field Day experience with honest reflection about what worked, what didn't, and why it still matters.
Despite challenging propagation that made 20 meters nearly useless, our South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) field operation managed 680 QSOs with 16 operators including several first-timers making their debut HF contacts. The camaraderie and mentorship moments proved more memorable than any score could reflect.
Our equipment choices sparked fascinating discussion about the evolution of field operations. We deployed simple yet effective antennas including Aerial-51 off-center fed dipoles on SOTA-beam masts and a remarkable military surplus 40-meter vertical built from scrap aluminum by silent key Larry K8UT that outperformed expectations. All stations used FTDX10 radios - a choice we explain after detailing our final journey away from problematic FTX1 models and praising Ham Radio Outlet's exceptional customer service.
The most thought-provoking segment explores whether POTA is replacing traditional Field Day. With outdoor portable operation now happening year-round, we question how ARRL might evolve Field Day to maintain relevance, particularly addressing the controversial 1D station rules. An 82-year-old ham's perspective that "POTA is the future of ham radio" launches us into examining the balance between contesting, emergency practice, and social connection.
Join us for laughs about Jim's abandoned attempt to backpack a DX10 to Mackinac Island, heated debates about "please copy" Field Day etiquette, and news about our exciting guest for Episode 8 - someone from one of the "big three" manufacturers you won't want to miss!
Subscribe: https://www.everydayham.com
If you enjoy the Everyday Ham Podcast, please leave a five-star review - it helps others find us and keeps this conversation growing.
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/
Welcome to the Everyday Ham Podcast everyone. This is Episode 7. We are in July, close to Fourth of July weekend. I'm James K-H-A-K-U and I'm joining me today are my co-hosts Rory W-A-K-N-X and Jim N-A-J-R-D. Before we want to get started, I want to just remind everyone how to connect with the Everyday Ham community.
Speaker 1:First, the best spot to visit is everydayhamcom. You'll find links to our podcast episodes, youtube videos, as well as our Instagram and Discord channels. So be sure to go out there and follow us for a little short snippets and what we're working on. And, again, as always, if you like what you're hearing today or watching today, please take a moment to hit that like and subscribe button. It really helps others discover our content and it would do us a great favor. Also, if you're feeling generous and you're on a platform such as Apple podcast, spotify, go ahead and leave us a five-star review. Again, if you like what you're hearing and what we're doing, it helps the community out a ton.
Speaker 1:Jim had a great idea also and I want to thank everyone that participated. We actually got some everyday ham patches made with a nice Velcro backing. We made them for ourselves, but we had a couple extras and Jim thought it'd be great to give those away as a prize to some of our audience members. So thanks, jim, for that idea and thank you everyone that also submitted your names for the raffle. But to maybe get started, we can talk a little bit about what we've been doing in ham radio. Rory, maybe start with you.
Speaker 3:Well, one thing I think we should bring up right off the bat is we are official W8EDH. We have a everyday ham amateur radio club club call we do, and all of the things that go with that we have started to put together. We do have a QRZ page started. We do have the POTA account started, so I would expect we'll be doing some combined POTA efforts at some point. It's more or less a club for the three of us and probably some of our best friends to have some fun with once in a while and just to do some fun things and have the chance to do that Additionally.
Speaker 3:I just finished and actually it has some errors so I guess I'm not quite finished but I started putting together the All-Star side of that. We will have an all-star hub up in the cloud that will be open to the public. You can join into that club and maybe down the road that will be attached to some physical hardware somewhere, but we're not going to put the antenna before the horse for that, so we'll see Just some fun stuff there. Otherwise, around my shack it was field day weekend, which we'll be talking about as we get into the episode here, but that has been about it. We did have James' shack visit.
Speaker 3:We actually had the mic check video that came out last weekend, I believe, and that was a fun time. The three of us all got together and got a 2-meter 440 antenna up on the roof at James' house, so if you've not seen that video, take a look at YouTube. It was a good time. You can see the three of us being complete. I don't even know what the word is, not coming up with. The one I want but we're not good at doing things is basically what it comes down to.
Speaker 1:If you ever dreamed of seeing this guy awkwardly crawl around the roof then that's the right episode for you, but we got it done.
Speaker 3:It was a good time and it was a successful installation, Jim.
Speaker 2:I feel like that was a pretty representative experience overall, like somebody that you're only going to put an antenna up once. In most cases right. We made do with the things that we had at James' house, including a tote that we emptied jumper cables out of some rope that he was using to guy an antenna out with a wrench that I threw at his face at some point to try to get the rope into the right location. It's all stuff you should probably go check out in the mic check video. But yeah it stuff.
Speaker 2:You should probably go check out in the mic check video. But uh, yeah it, it was. Uh, it was a heck of a time and uh, james is now on the air and that's uh, that's something that we can check off the box.
Speaker 1:And uh hear james on the local repeater and I've joined a total of one net, so I'm making good use of it.
Speaker 2:In the last week I've had it, so technically, we're on the thursday night round table as well, which I know is not a directed net, but it is technically established to get together.
Speaker 1:Not a net, but yeah, it was a good time. Thanks again for helping with that. Maybe on the club topic, we never realize how much paperwork and accounts you have to register for when you start your own club, but also our buddy. Shane is one of the members there as well, so it's definitely a good time for the four of us. Shane is one of our admins. Slash good friends. That helps with some of the back end stuff for the podcast. Thanks, Shane. Shout out again to Shane.
Speaker 2:K-Fate BWN.
Speaker 1:You'll see us on.
Speaker 3:Now, if we shout out Shane, we have to shout out the unlicensed Jade over there. And who gives all sorts of ideas to Shane but doesn't get licensed. So I have a whole list of ideas for Thursday Night Roundtable topics from her, but she's not on the air. But I know she listens to this once in a while so I figured I'd throw that shout out there as well well, I'll tell you I am in a foreign place.
Speaker 2:If you are watching the podcast for our seventh iteration here, you'll notice that the background looks a little bit different and you might recognize it from our hamvention special where we were in my camper during the big rainstorm. No rainstorm. Up here I am literally on July 4th doing vacation mode here in Gaylord, Michigan, on the back 40 acres of my father's property, KC8 NTE. So yeah, we're out here enjoying a family reunion experience and I've got the Yeti microphone with me and we are testing this microphone. So if you like how it sounds better than the one I usually use, let us know in the comments below. And I'm using a MacBook that I generally use just for logging and other ham radio programming purposes. So not a great webcam, I understand it, but it's been fun.
Speaker 2:I do have aspirations to get the radio out here, probably tomorrow, depending on what looks good. The weather is supposed to participate the remainder of the week. So I think I'm going to head back up to Otsego Lake State Park, try to get my name to the top of the POTA list over there. I'm not too far off. I know it sounds crazy, but a very underactivated state park here in Michigan, right off of the freeway there, and then I think I'm also heading over to the East Jordan Fish Hatchery again, which is actually not too far from where I'm at here in the camper. So two that I'm targeting to put another activation on the books for get the DX10 out and we'll see how that goes with the band conditions, the way that they continue to be.
Speaker 1:They've been better. I was checking out the solar report for today and it seems like right after field day ended, sunday, sunday morning, 20 meters started to open. We'll talk about field day.
Speaker 2:Thanks, son.
Speaker 1:Day or two.
Speaker 3:It's been slowly getting better. So basically it just wasn't time to ruin field day for some folks. But right, yeah. So at us, you're looking at us. 1531 at seagull lake state park, one gym is. Jim is fifth in activator q. So's, that's right. You're only uh nine behind our friend, terry uh w8tmb, who is uh, who is a friend of the channel, and and certainly I think you might pass him with one activation. You will pass him with one activation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would have to get 10.
Speaker 2:But if I get much more than 10, I'll be very thrilled with the way things have been going lately on my activations. I've been walking away with 15 or 20 and being pretty happy about that taking longer than I remember. A couple times coming up here I've been able to swing into that Otsego Lake State Park and, just you know, 30 minutes have a full activation plus some. So it'll be really interesting to get down there. Of course it'll be much busier because it's the summer. That is a boating park, primarily In the winter. It's pretty quiet and that's been. I've been able to sneak in to activate someone sometime around Christmas last year and sometime late in the fall last year as well, when it was really closed up.
Speaker 1:Winter activations at boat docks. Fall or winter activation at boat docks and state parks. Some of the best spots you can go Usually has the real estate, no one to trample on your antenna wires and you are sitting pretty with a good view.
Speaker 2:It was me and the DNR officer that were in there and he was curious what I was doing, but otherwise very friendly.
Speaker 3:But that's where I'm at. Even at Island Lake, our local Gemini, the South Lyon area, brighton area park. It's not local to James, he's too far away from here. What was that? Oh, the fish area, the fish access area, whatever it's called. That is also the same deal there. It's the fall and the autumn, a very nice place to activate. Unfortunately, they close that area in the winter at that park, so that's kind of a bummer.
Speaker 2:But that's what's up with me here and, like I said, different background, different microphone, different setup. But hopefully we're still bringing it to you here on the Starlink tonight and I'm really happy to be with you guys, James what's new with you in HAM? Well, we'll talk a little about it.
Speaker 1:So I got my ID5100 sitting here next to me, so that's hooked up to that brand new antenna on the roof. I also have a brand new FT-DX10 sitting here and Jim.
Speaker 2:Do you want to tell them why? Yeah, I think that it's time for us to close the book on the FTX1, and we'll make this one quick, because I think we've had a lot of, perhaps, fun with the FTX, or a lot of the fun at the FTX1's expense. Perhaps here's the deal.
Speaker 2:James and I, both, after the last episode, attempted again to make those radios work for us Another week after that and finally I gave up and I called Ham Radio Outlet out in Milwaukee I have a good contact there and I said, hey, this radio, for whatever reason, just is not working. Here are the things that I've found. Ham Radio Outlet just said no problem, why don't you just send it back to us? We would be happy to get you squared away. We don't want you to be unhappy with the situation. So they took it back no questions, even though it had been run. No restocking fee, which was really nice of them, and they sent it back to Yesu for further diagnosis.
Speaker 2:So that was nice to hear. It wasn't one that went back on the shelf to be resold. We were happy to hear that Ham Radio Outlet treated us right. They treated, I think, the situation correctly and made sure that we were whole on the situation. So, yep, my FTX1 is now back at Yaesu being diagnosed and hopefully in the future they can learn more from it. But with all that being said, I did cash out of the FTX1 market and, before anybody asks or posts, it was before the most recent update which, I believe, dropped just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1:Saturday or Friday evening, I think it was.
Speaker 2:Right before field day, I believe, they dropped a second update for the FTX1. Remember they came with a rapid first update and that second update had a slew of actually identified bugs that they listed out in the release notes. I always appreciate good release notes I said last time I was disappointed with the initial release Didn't give us much detail on what they had fixed. This one did. It outlined each of the things that they worked on and so I hope that those folks that were able to get that installed on their FTX one that it made it better, that it made it work the way you wanted it or expected it to work. But nope, I had already sent mine back by then. I think James in the same boat, he followed suit with me. He talked to our ham radio outlet friend as well and he did also return his FTX1. So I just wanted to clear the air on that.
Speaker 2:We have moved on from the radio and both of us still kept Yesu and the family here. We have two new DX10s to announce which I think are Yesu's best HF radio for the money. No hands down, no doubt about it. I'm thrilled with my DX10. The DX10 is what I sold to buy the FTX1 and I'm glad to have one back in my box for POTA and for shack use. It's just an excellent radio. So closing the book on that and happy to report that both of us were not only made whole but also happily made new owners of FTDX10s, which are now in our possession.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I also second the Ham Radio Outlet Milwaukee store and again, we're nobodies. Just because we have a YouTube channel, no one knows who we are at the HRO or anything like that. So this is a special treatment and prior to this they were also always very nice folks in there and deserve that kind of recognition and respect that we give them Good service and I do appreciate that from them as well. I did take the credit I was going to get. I got this FTDX 10 based on a lot of the feedback from everyone else. I needed to update my base station, so I took the opportunity to do it and I wouldn't say I'm out of the FTX 1 market completely.
Speaker 2:I think in a few years.
Speaker 1:It's a form factor. We talked about it. It's a form factor, I like. I like the ICOM 705 as well. I'm not a QRP operator, but I like the ability to be mobile with it, the versatility that comes with it. I know it's a joke on the forums, they'll probably be an FTX1D and. Exa in a year or so maybe, but I will consider it in the future. But again, it was a lot of money tied up in a radio I wasn't enjoying using.
Speaker 2:Or making work.
Speaker 1:That's why I made the switch now or making work yeah.
Speaker 2:Or making work. It wasn't just enjoyment, simply put, it was not just enjoyment that caused me to send it back. Right, there's a difference between a radio not functioning properly and a radio that I'm unhappy with and I can mentally make that distinction and say, hey, you know what, you got excited, you bought the wrong thing, but the radio works perfectly. Right, there's a difference between that and what we got there and that I wanted to say out loud. There I think we acknowledged and confirmed that there were issues there that needed squaring. So anyway, but I love what James said there. Asterisk, right, everyday ham, we appreciate everybody that checks it out, don't think that anybody at Ham Radio Outlet?
Speaker 2:is real familiar with N8JRD or K8JKU, so this was more just saying hey, this is my story, what do you think? And they said no, let's make sure we take care of you. The only thing that they asked of me was that I send a letter back with my radio indicating all of the issues that I had experienced and what I had done to rectify them. Since I had talked with support, that's what I did. I just basically printed out a letter with all that information, and he said that they would forward it, along in the box with the radio, back to Yesu. So I appreciated their handling of that situation.
Speaker 1:And I think the last straw for me was I started to have the transmit issue, where it cut off on 40 meters, and again I wasn't enjoying myself and I think it's a hobby that I should enjoy. So I said, okay, I'm going to go get a radio temporarily, but we also found out. We'll put maybe an asterisk here as well, because it's speculation. We personally didn't go through this experience.
Speaker 2:A lot of hearsay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that there is maybe a fix for that intermittent transmit issue which requires you sending your radio back to Yaesu. It's a touch-and-go sort of operation and then they send it back to you, apparently fixed. So if you are experiencing that issue out there, maybe it's an opportunity to call Yaesu support and see what they can do for you. But again, we personally did not go through that process. We chose the path of least resistance, which was just to return the units.
Speaker 2:I would also ask if anybody did have it sent back and knows what was changed or modified. We would love to know, because we were trying to collect that information to tell you guys on this podcast, and thus far information is fairly scarce on what is being done to these radios other than send it back and we'll make a change. So we don't know why you can not make the change yourself via firmware. It appears to require some level of hardware interaction from the manufacturer, the mothership. That's what we know, and so we would love to learn more so that we can give you a fuller story. Rory, you had something. I'm sorry I cut you off.
Speaker 3:I had exactly what you just said.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, well, there you go.
Speaker 3:That's what happens on the Starlink. Yeah, I was hoping that we would get some feedback from somebody who took the opportunity to return it and see what their experience was with the Yaesu support process and so forth. So yeah, definitely, If someone's done that, I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 2:I have a non-FTX story because I want to give a transition point before we go into the main topic, which will be exciting. Today I went to Mackinac Island and guess what happened? I did not take my radio because, as I was packing my backpack, I put a DX10 in, and then I put an Atos 25 in, and then I put a 20-amp-hour lithium-ion battery in, and pretty soon my pack weighed close to 23 pounds and I still had to spend the whole afternoon riding around, which is insane, which is insane.
Speaker 1:You even attempted that. So for those that don't know, Mackinac Island it's an island up in the northern east side of Michigan. It is known. Notoriously there are no vehicles outside of emergency vehicles on that island Horse-drawn carriage Strictly bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, walking.
Speaker 1:Those are your options, and you have to take a ferry, a boat to get there and then walk around everywhere. The fact that he loaded a DX-10 into a backpack and said this is something I'm going to try for a minute, I'm going to strut around and see how it feels it's kind of nuts that that was where you started.
Speaker 2:But that's my opinion. Go ahead, Rory. What do you have on this?
Speaker 3:If you go again, you're allowed to take my 891. I'll just put that out there.
Speaker 1:Well, 891s exist, or an FTX1. I was just going to say.
Speaker 2:So here's the full circle right. Had I had a working FTX1 Optima it would have been a mint opportunity to detach the field head with the battery and put it in my pack and it would have weighed three or four pounds and I would have comfortably went across on the ferry and I would have gotten off and I would have set up my ATOS 25. It's a pretty light antenna and I would have been the strange person in the middle of the harbor doing a poda activation and getting my Mackinac Island.
Speaker 1:But sadly I visited Mackinac Island there are.
Speaker 2:It's a twofer right. If you set up in the right place, you can activate the harbor and the state park because the whole island is essentially the park and it's a really cool place. If you haven't gotten somebody on Mackinac Island, it's not a very frequently activated park just because of, again, the logistics of getting a radio out there and having a place to set it up. We do have a club member, kn4al. We've had him on as a guest here that has done it himself, here, that has done it himself, and I appreciated his dedication to the cause as I was putting my FDD-X10 into a backpack and deciding that I didn't want to break the front knobs off, carrying it around all afternoon when I wasn't doing radio things.
Speaker 1:I think Jason used the foldable wagon to take his equipment over to the island I was going to say, if you're a private pilot, you could take all the equipment you want, because there is a small airport on the island as well.
Speaker 2:There is.
Speaker 1:None of us are that category of hams.
Speaker 2:We do have a private pilot in the club, though. Well, we'll have to think about that at some point. Anyway, I just thought that was a funny story. There was A situation where an FTX one would have come in handy. I did not have it in my kit. Rory, I agree with you. I think the 891 would have been the second best option, and it still exists on my Christmas want list or my Thanksgiving Black Friday list or whatever the next big day of discounts is. At some point I'll probably have to get one.
Speaker 1:But field day just happened, guys, and I think Super Bowl of amateur radio just occurred.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Hopefully everyone got out and was able to participate.
Speaker 3:I spent some parts of all the days out there the setup day, the Saturday full day and then the Sunday teardown day. So, as all of you listeners probably are aware, we're all very active members of the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club here in South Lyon, michigan and we were operating November 8th, sierra Lima, out at field day from Brighton State Rec at the McGeezy cabin little little cabin, little off the grid cabin in the park, cool little spot and we had a pretty mediocre field day. By the numbers it was, I think, one of the slower ones for me since I've been a ham and certainly, yep, it's my personal personal lowest as far as context is concerned. But you know that doesn't mean and and I'm I'm the optimist when it comes to this it doesn't mean that it was a bust at all there were.
Speaker 3:There were a lot of positives about the weekend and I think we'll get into some of that um, but the band conditions were poor and 20 meters it was. It was rough. 20 meters for 20 meters, to be next to useless for a good chunk of the daytime hours kills the score. 40 40 held on for the most part, but 20 20 just wasn't there um 10 10 was not there um 10 wasn't there all weekend, and it was barely there for FT8, too.
Speaker 3:So here's some low numbers from the South Lion Club. So a total of 680 contacts for the whole weekend 680.
Speaker 2:Which, by the way, is what? 50 or 60 below our last year. Score our 2024 score. Yes, 2024 score. So it was less, even than last year.
Speaker 1:And Rory will give this, this stat, but a lot more operators too.
Speaker 3:Go ahead yeah so, and as far as the bands were concerned, uh, 40 meters was the muddy band for us, with three 339 contacts there, and then only 155 on on um, on 20 meters, a few on 15, a few on 10, that's wild 13, 13, only 13 on 10.
Speaker 3:That's um no's wild. No one was able to get six meters to do anything for them. They did try for a little while. We really didn't have a dedicated antenna for six, but we wanted to try it just to see what we could do. And then the bummer for me, and I always look forward to 80 meters in the nighttime. I enjoy it because it's not something I get to do very often here at home because I'm not set up for it, because it's not something I get to do very often here at home because I'm not set up for it. It didn't really wake up for me. I stayed out there at the site until 2.30. When I left at 2.30, jason KN4AL got up and picked up the 80 meters and after I left he got about 30 contacts on 80 for the rest of the nighttime. So you know, it was kind of a bummer and you wanted to know how many operators we had out there. I kind of a bummer and you wanted to know how many, how many operators we had out there.
Speaker 3:Um, I have to count, uh, 16, 16 operators, and that does not include um, one unlicensed fellow that came out with, with his uncle and that would have been uh, kate, mrd mike um, who a lot of people are familiar with his his youtube channel, of course, um, but he was originally from the this area in michigan, I think, uh, west bloomfield or commerce township. So he still has family in the area and he took the opportunity to bring his nephew out, which was super cool and his nephew was, uh, super interested, um, and he got on the air. It was he got on 40 meters, I think, sat with uh, did he sit with you?
Speaker 1:James, yeah, it was me. It's always cool when you can show someone that doesn't do ham radio ham radio and they're maybe a little excited about it. So that was pretty cool. It's a rare opportunity hams get to have and I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was also nice to have him come out. K8mrd, that is on friday evening, which is our setup evening generally. But I will also say that rory mentioned record numbers for our operators, but we had just record turnout in general at the field day site for the south line area amateur radio club and, uh, mike k8D I'll just call him by his first name. I only met him just for the first time on Friday evening a real nice guy and uh, he did a video on the South line area amateur radio club and our field day site and I think that it was a really um ingratiating video. Uh, you know one that uh, it was very nice to hear uh good things about the club that he had of started in and I think that we also got our restarts in right, it's just, it is a really awesome club. So if you haven't checked out his video, we'll give him a little plug right here. He did a real nice walkthrough of our field day site out there at the South Island Area Amateur Radio Club in McGizzy in the Brighton State Recreation Area. So go check it out if you haven't looked at that yet. It'll give you a really good idea of what we were working with, and I will also say out loud that at the end of our event we always ask, on the Sunday evening net that follows field day, how did it go right? And we had an excellent turnout for the Sunday evening net and a whole bunch of really positive feedback on it being a well-organized experience, on it being an accessible experience for new hams that came out felt like they were okay to be able to operate radios.
Speaker 2:I saw more new hams this year than I did last year, which I was really excited by, and I think we were speculating going into this one. That was what we would see and that we wanted to see, so it was awesome to see that actually came to fruition and I was just all around really excited. I didn't get to spend as much time at the site as I would have liked because I had a trip coming right after it. So I believe I only got 10 contacts, all of them eked out on 20, if you can believe that, I made the station work for me just barely, but I guess I got a POTA activation if you're going to count that as a park. I needed 10 to get there, so that's exactly the number that I got. Then I said, okay, that's that. I tried to get back on later on, but there was a few folks that were interested, so off I went. Really nice field day experience, james, go ahead.
Speaker 1:First off, Jim is the event chair for the South Lion Amateur Radio Club, so you gave yourself a well-deserved pat on the back there, and I also want to second that you did a great job.
Speaker 1:Also thank you to all the Slark members that came out and made that a really cool experience. Everyone helped, Everyone chipped in, Everyone was bringing food to share. It was honestly one of the best radio events I've been to, so thank you everyone for that. I was there all three days. I left a little bit early on Sunday because my wife was a little sick of me doing radio stuff.
Speaker 2:We had a busy lead-up week too.
Speaker 1:Which is completely understandable. But it was fun and I appreciate it. I just wish the bands were a little better.
Speaker 1:I kept looking at the scoreboard because I was trying 20, and I was looking over at NAJRD on the board, I'm like, well, I can beat that. Four hours later I still hadn't beaten it and I was like, well, okay, I'm going to go do other things. So Sunday morning I came back and I was astonished with the magic of radio again, because I could actually one hear people on 20 meters. Nice, they could hear me a little bit as well. So I was actually starting to get a few contacts.
Speaker 1:And then I said you know I'm going to pop over to 40. 40's open that money band over there, and I got a few more there as well. But it was a good time. I really had a great time. Mike was delightful. He actually helped set up as well on that Friday. So if anyone thinks he's not someone that's going to get his hands dirty. He did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and yeah, that was about it, rory, what was? Uh? I was just looking back at the numbers here and out of out of that, out of the, out of the activators there the poda in me is is sneaking out out of the participants in field day uh, five of them just off the top of my head. This was their first field day and uh, one for sure. Wadkm mike made his first hf contact ever there and so he was thrilled. He got bit by the radio bug over again. He's been a regular on our local two-meter repeater during drive time. But it's a different bug that bites you when you turn on HF and start spinning the dial and doing some sideband work. So he was able to do that, and I thought of something else that you guys were talking to In my load numbers. I was able to do that, and I thought of something else that you guys were talking to In my load numbers. I was able to do something else. I was able to sit with people that this was their first time there.
Speaker 3:We had a gentleman come out who has not yet gotten his license. He came out Saturday. I was able to take him around, show him the antenna farm, show him the setup and you know that's pretty rewarding too. It's not all about the contacts. It's not all about the contacts, it's about the people, and a couple people were curious about my ATOS antenna. They've all heard the story of people who say the ATOS is awful and other people tell the story that old W8KNX there plugged it in and had it going in five minutes and it works fine. So everyone has to come out to the Jeep and see it installed. So I had a couple of those too. But that's the fun part too. You get to share and talk and that's really just as important to me as the counts and the score.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's four stations and there were what? 15 people out there on Saturday afternoon, right. So four stations full. But there was lots of conversation about radio, radio, adjacent topics, what projects folks were working on, what they're hoping to do with their radio in the future, show and tell of radio equipment that is sitting on the table or out on someone's vehicle. That's again the magic of the field day, right? It's a whole lot of different things.
Speaker 2:It's not just operating radio but, ultimately it is that informal contest and, like james said, numbers, uh, this year not as good as last, but I think that band conditions also different than last time around. So go ahead, james. What do you have?
Speaker 1:well, I was gonna say let's let's get into a little bit of the nerdy part of field day. Let's talk about the equipment. So we had our tenna farm, rory mentioned. We had our inside of the cabin where we were set up with our radios. First year with all the same radios, that's right. We're really plugging the FTDX10 this episode. But, that's what we were using for the excellent receive, quality and usability from some newer members Front end rejection too.
Speaker 2:Man, there's four radios sitting next to one another. You need something that's not going to talk back into the radio next to you. It does excellent. That's one of the reasons that we went to that radio over a 7300. Right, it does better in noisy situations, busy situations than any other radio that we have available to us.
Speaker 1:So yeah, sorry, I got excited in total. No, you're okay in total. We had. Well, let me count it one, two, three, four, five. A ten is going. Well, that's a five. Right there. We had a vertical, the 40 meter vertical. Rory, do you want to explain that one, because it's a pretty special club radio I don't know that I can.
Speaker 3:So it's, it's uh, scrap aluminum. It is scrap aluminum and various military surplus. So, uh, larry k8 ut, who's who's a silent key was a? Uh was a member of the south lion club. Some people might be familiar with that call sign. He was very involved in a lot of technical writing on. A member of the South Lion Club. Some people might be familiar with that call sign. He was very involved in a lot of technical writing on a lot of ham radio software, the N1MM logger. He was quite involved with the technical writing on that. All of Steve N8AR Kits for Hams stuff. The Morty, which was Larry's product, the Morty Ritty, keeter, keer, ritty, ncw, keer. So Larry was a tinker. Larry liked to make things work and he was smarter than most anyone. But he also liked to build stuff. So somewhere along the way and I was not active at this time somewhere along the way he had a bunch of scrap aluminum that he decided to make into a 40 meter meter. Is it a full wave vertical? Is that? Is that?
Speaker 2:I asked. It's a quarter wave vertical somebody made fun of me, because a full wave on 40 would be quite large yes, I think I heard you it would be, wouldn't it? Yeah, it would be quite large we're not good at ham radio.
Speaker 3:It it would be. I heard you ask that and I think that's why that was in my head, so I'll just blame you on that. Good move, Sure Quarter wave, and it's built on this tripod.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you get online the military poles.
Speaker 3:Huge military poles on a huge tripod with a couple of radials on it and it works exceptionally well it does. When I was out there with Shane at KFA BWN we were disassembling at the end of the weekend I'm like you know what I want one of these.
Speaker 1:If I had a spot for one of these. Everyone says that too.
Speaker 3:I would want one of these in my yard, and it looks like something from a sci-fi movie. It does.
Speaker 1:Like the Halo video game. It's pretty freaking cool and I was going to say we even weigh it down. We put about 300 feet of coax on that bad boy as well, because we have to set it up kind of far away from the cabin and it still outperforms any antenna for 40 meters I've ever used. That thing is a monster.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had a good half hour activation before field day officially started. We were we keep talking about poda while we're talking about field day and I guess we should should clarify if it wasn't clear. We do our. Our field day is at brighton state recreation area, which is a poda park officially a poda park.
Speaker 2:Yep, we're not cheating we're we're able to.
Speaker 3:We're able to log, log our poda contacts as the club and the individual operators, as we do field day. So, um, while we're out there, um, yeah, that's, that's the case. But yeah, that 40 meter vertical is something else, it it?
Speaker 1:it looks ridiculous, but it works well yeah, yeah, and we simplified the rest of the setup as well. So we didn't do any towers or or really massive construction projects. This year we stuck to a pretty typical parks on the air, multi-day operation if we were going to go camp somewhere and what we'd set up. So we had our 12-meter soda beam mass basically set up and we had an antenna. So Louis had on his an 8LEK, he had a band hopper that did 80 meters up to 80 meters, so he had that set to 80 meters. Then we also had two, one on each of the SOTA-B masks, ariel 51 antennas, which are an off-center fed dipole. Usually very good performance out of those. They are slightly compromised, but they are also why am I drawing a blank on the words here?
Speaker 2:real quick guys Resonant on some frequencies that yeah, they're tunerless, right, the aerial 51s are tunerless, which is really important when you're operating multiple radios without extra hardware, right? And and of course we, we will say dx10, of course gives you three to one match, so it can make up for a little bit of, uh, edge band, uh, you know, mismatch v square wise, but uh, you know it's, it's not, it's not a 10-to-1, it's not a major tuner, right? So it's a big difference. It's a big reason why we chose the Ariel 51 as an effective multi-band antenna for our setup.
Speaker 1:And then the last antenna we had was a classic NFED half-wave. We just had it set up leaning in a mast up against a tree and then we used that for 10 meters basically. So that was the setup, simple, pure to the point. At one point we actually had to go swap out one of the Ariel 51s because we didn't believe band conditions were really that bad. So we went outside, we made Rory I think it was you we were like please stop operating 20 meters.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like you were getting much anyway, no, it didn't hurt my feelings at all, you know, I just had to stop yelling into the mic for a minute, yeah. And then we actually tore it all down, put it back up. We're all excited. We took SWR readings the whole nine yards. We thought feed line issue, a tenner issue, we weren't sure and nope, it was just band conditions, the sun was angry and that's what happened I think we did the classic ham fix, which is to over complicate it by over fixing it right.
Speaker 2:Why not replace the entire antenna if, if we're having problems, it can't possibly be that the bands just aren't cooperating?
Speaker 1:it has to be something that's not us when?
Speaker 3:is 20 meters not usable in the daytime? I mean, that's that's so rare, I know, but apparently saturday, a field day, that that's the case. A lot of people might be saying that's a very simple antenna setup for a field day. Don't you want to put up a tower? Don't you want to put up a beam? Don't you want to do this? Don't you want to do that? Well, we'll go back in history and the Southland Club does own two towers and two beams, I believe, but the rotors and all the things to be able to do it. We could still do that entirely set up for field day and put up towers. That's right. The discussion.
Speaker 3:We've had a lot of discussion about this and it comes down to sure we're probably losing a little bit of advantage being able to shoot a bunch of power to the west coast to get the six and seven call area stations, and that actually shows on our, our log that we were. We were pretty weak into southern california. Um, I was, I'm always happy to work uh, the stations and and all the sections in california and the six stations and all that, but didn't get many of them, um, so you kind of have that. You can call that a handicap? But I don't. I don't really think it is, um, because you end up by simplifying the antenna setup to what we've done, your setup and teardown is quicker and it's a ton safer too.
Speaker 3:I've always had a lot of concern, and I was just listening to something I don't know, maybe Ham Radio Newsline or one of those broadcasts where they were talking about people showing pictures of their field they set up and people not operating safely no hard hats, no gloves, no people wearing flip-flops trying to put up a tower. So you've got to think about it. It's a safety thing too. It's a time efficiency and safety thing, and we would hate to have something happen to someone. Safety thing too. It's a time efficiency and safety thing, and we would hate to have something happen to someone. And there's there's terrible stories out there on field days of yesterday that bad things have happened with those. So I think I am a big fan of the simplified setup and I think you know, band conditions aside, it worked just fine yeah, I had a little bit of beam envy.
Speaker 2:I won't say, I won't lie. Uh, james and I both went out to the Lark Field Day site in Cahokta Township. I believe I pronounced that correctly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Livingston Amateur Radio Club.
Speaker 2:Livingston, lark. Yep, and they did have two beams set up, but one of them had a little lean and James and I both were like okay, but it was three guys.
Speaker 1:Stay on this side of the entire thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was three guys and they muscled that thing up there and it was quite a setup, right. It was a multi-element massive beam up probably a good 30, 40, 40-plus feet probably, and they had it all guyed out. I mean, they spent a good four or five hours setting that thing up. And what Rory said is 100% true, right, if you don't have the right folks with the right know-how, setting something like that up can be an endeavor that perhaps your club isn't willing or interested in getting involved in, and it also has a major time investment in doing so. Right. And what we decided was, for the joy of operating and for the joy of our sanity, we were not going to invest the time in constructing beams.
Speaker 2:I don't think that there's a time down the road where maybe we might reconsider that there's a very likely there might be the right group of folks that are engineering minded, that have the right equipment and the access to that equipment. You know trucks and trailers and things that can make that easier. Let's bring it back Right. But right now, with the folks that we have and the equipment that we have and the space that we're working in, those types of things don't make sense for us, and I think that I agree, you leave some points on the board when you don't go massive beam, but also it's field operation.
Speaker 2:Let's not lose the spirit of field day, which perhaps is part of where we're going with this conversation in a little bit here. Let's not lose the spirit of the field day, which is to say you're out in the field working your radio. How do you set it up? How quickly can you set it up? How can you make it work for you if this were an emergency situation? Right, this is a little bit of a role play for something like that. Down the line, james, you have a thought, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Well, I was going to say, as we were talking about all the safety, now go watch the video of me climbing around on a roof where Jim throws a wrench at my face. Watch us live that example to the fullest, that'd be great.
Speaker 3:I fell out of my attic a couple months ago, so there's that I do want to call out.
Speaker 1:We are not perfect.
Speaker 2:I do want to call out the gentleman that made a comment on that video, by the way, and I'm sorry I don't know his name, but you'll know it if it's you. He said a fall arrest harness is not an expensive piece of equipment and it can be bought almost anywhere by a normal person and I actually read that and I said you know what Damn, that's a, really that's a smart comment.
Speaker 2:And I actually I get up on my roof probably more frequently than most folks do. I will actually be looking into what I need to buy one of those, and I may just have to tie it off to my truck on the other side of the roof when.
Speaker 2:I go up so that if I do go down, at least I'm not hitting the ground right. Somebody can call the fire department and they can bring the ladder truck out and rescue me. At least I haven't broken all of my bones when I fall off my third story roof, right. So I appreciate that person who left that comment. Fall rest harnesses those are available. They are not ridiculously expensive. A normal Joe who's operating up on the roof and wants to make changes on a semi-frequent basis is definitely probably going to find that to be a really smart investment. So plus one if you're that guy who left us that comment, thank you for putting some sense into us. It was a very astute comment on that video.
Speaker 1:And I guess, before we go into our feedback about field day, of course, if you're listening or watching, go ahead and leave in the comments your setups, your experiences with field day, what you found interesting in terms of what you guys as a club or yourself did. We'd love to know more about the antennas you used, the setups, photos, whatever you have. We find that stuff very interesting. So, of course, please share it and we'd love to work with you and communicate with you on those experiences as well. But let's talk a little bit about where we feel field day could be improved for the future.
Speaker 1:Why don't we start with you, because I know you have feedback.
Speaker 3:I found a very interesting post on Facebook and I think the park's on their Facebook page. We all know my thoughts of some of the people that post on that particular Facebook page. Some of them are people who I don't think should be allowed in public. This gentleman here that made this post and its title 2025, my last field day and I will credit him this is Mel.
Speaker 1:Snyder Provocative title.
Speaker 3:Mel Snyder, w3pyf, and he states in here that he's 82 years old and he's been a licensed ham since 1957. So he's got a number of field days under his belt, and this is a very similar conversation, I think, to a conversation a lot of us have had, because Parks on the Air has become such a thing. In the old days, field day used to be the only time of year you'd be crazy enough to take your expensive equipment out in the field and turn it on. Now it's something a lot of us do every weekend.
Speaker 1:Now Jim's throwing it in a backpack and trying to catch a ferry to an island.
Speaker 3:And it's really changed the way people look at Field Day. And one of his ideas, one of his thoughts and I'm kind of on the same same thought process his comment here this past field day in my estimation was the very worst I can recall. I wouldn't necessarily say I agree with that fully hot take.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a hot take we talked about, uh, a lot of the positives moments ago, a lot of the social side of it, a lot of the getting new people out there. That's, that's fine. We had band conditions that were bad, that's fine. But I, I don't know that, for me it was the very worst.
Speaker 3:But uh, he goes on to talk about why he felt that way and, uh, the changing of the rules with the class d stations, which are people at home, and the fact that they're able to work each other for for points. So you, you do start to run into a problem where there's a lot of one delta stations working one delta stations, and it's much easier when you're at the comfort of your home station that you work every day, and sometimes you have those beams, sometimes you have that amp, sometimes you have all the things. That's right. It turns into a lot of power, a lot of a lot of noise coming from the one Delta stations trying to rack up points on a contest. That's not a contest, it's field day and I will give my take on that. I do feel field day is a contest and I feel it should be a contest, but that's just how I am.
Speaker 2:They're publishing rankings, so it's a contest. They can call it what it is. It's a contest. There are results in the back of the QST magazine when they tally the results.
Speaker 1:It's a contest Now you're going to start an argument with all the POTA folks out there on that one, but go on Go ahead, Rory. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Rory, you almost got me going on something else.
Speaker 1:I saw the wheels turning.
Speaker 3:I'll try to stay on topic for once in my life, but he goes on to talk about the POTA stations and how POTA has become. Such a thing is actually a good thing and it's the people are keeping it simple by keeping their POTA activation simple. They're getting out and they're practicing and they're doing all the goodwill. Amateur radio.
Speaker 1:And they're experimenting with new things too.
Speaker 3:And he talks a little bit about what we were talking about earlier, the Goodwill of Amateur Radio where you have people that come out and are new and want to play. We're seeing that in POTA but we're starting to see in Field Day, as clubs seem to have smaller turnouts for field day, that's getting harder and harder to have people to welcome the people that come in and explain to people what's going on. So it's a lot of things there and and again. I shouldn't say this is everywhere. I also read a few articles about. You know, essentially and I didn't bookmark this one, but it was essentially the perfect field day experience where a brand new ham showed up and someone brought the guy a cup of coffee and took him around and explained everything and offered food and you know it sounded pretty cool. But you know, I think we have to.
Speaker 3:Field day needs to probably evolve and stay a little bit more current and stay with what's happening, and POTA is what's happening in amateur radio, especially in field operations right now. So we'll see what they do. Um, I know we all have have our thoughts on ARRL and and what they do and don't do and and uh, that's. That's again another conversation for another day. I myself would love to see them. You know you can't do away with the one delta stations, um I I think you need to have a category for for those folks that might be homebound or aren't able to get out for one reason or another but, uh, but you know, maybe put some power limitations on them, maybe maybe make it so they can't work each other um make it.
Speaker 3:You know, if one delta station's working sites out in the field, that's great, but when they're, when they're contesting with know if one delta stations working sites out in the field, that's great, but when they're when they're contesting with each other, one delta against one delta and there were a few of those you know that's the only people that were making it through a pileup were the one delta stations because they were at home throwing all their power at it so go ahead.
Speaker 1:You, you said you know one delta station shouldn't be able to work one delta stations and I, of course, in my, in my head, was like, well, if I'm calling CQ, I almost said Parks and the Air CQ Field Day. This is November 8th, sierra Lima, and I don't know yet because I haven't given my please copy for Alpha Mike, india. How are One Delta stations going to know the pulse?
Speaker 3:I've been reaching out to. You've already missed a step. You shouldn't turn on the radio and key up right away. You should have already listened for a few seconds to the person on the frequency and see what they're doing. That's how you know they're a one delta station. That's not that hard, this business of people turning in. That's how you get all this QRM and all this bullshit. That happens. People turn on their radio and they turn on, they turn up their power and they start keying up. I'm on the repeater over here the other day and here comes some guy in whitmore lake calling and giving a radio check while I'm in a cue. So with someone I mean listen for a half of a second before you transmit. That's how you know one, one delta station there, or one charlie station or one whatever station, I believe right, all I believe.
Speaker 2:Right, all of this is logged right. So I would love to see some statistics, even out of our own log, because we have that data set available. So I would love to see some statistics on how many 1D, 1e stations, one stations, were worked, just out of curiosity. It won't tell a whole story. The other thing that's interesting to me too, is when I put it in the perspective of poda. Right, the activator needs to be in a park for that park to become active. Right, and the activator is the sought after radio operator. In that scenario, right, we can have activators at home.
Speaker 2:Or, I'm sorry, rather, um, help me with the word, yeah yeah, yeah hunters at home I'm sorry it wasn't coming to me Hunters at home, right, that are playing the sport, right, but they have a specific position in that sport right.
Speaker 2:And when we think about the hunter, right, the hunter doesn't sit at home and say you know CQ Pota from my house on, you know Clark's court, right, they don't say a sought-after station because you're running a commercial 1,500 watts out of a tower that's 60 feet in the air on an antenna that you've spent thousands and thousands of dollars with. Right, the folks that have gone out spent a full day setting up, right. We want to encourage that behavior and I do think that it does detract from the idea of the field day. I want those people to continue to play. I just don't believe that it makes a lot of sense for the particular event that we're participating in to have those folks as the stations that we're calling back to. They can call us if they want to, but let's do something similar to what POTA did, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, and field day is supposed to be an emergency communications exercise. So, having a home station is also, I think, part of it.
Speaker 2:That's fair.
Speaker 1:That's fair you want to be able to reach out to those stations and get their cues, those, or have them reach out to you maybe also. Uh, but I agree with. I agree with everything you both have said to. You know, I don't really have any differing opinions I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's fair to say right in in classic everyday ham fashion, right, we're taking an idea here and we're breaking it down a little further, maybe pushing it a little bit further, making it a little uncomfortable. So, so, if you don't agree, let us know down below. You know what is, what is. What does field day need to bring folks back out to field day? Right, is field day outmoded? Because POTA is the new field day, because POTA offers us more opportunities to do field day and do the things that we're doing at field day with all of our friends more frequently.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's, maybe that's the truth. Right, I can go out and poda every weekend and I can say hey, if you're a new op and you want to come see how to run HF Radio in the field, let's go activate a park any day of the week. It doesn't have to be on ARRL schedule, it can be on Jim's schedule, najrd, anytime you want. So I would love to hear what the folks that are listening think. And how does ARRL bring field day back into relevance? I think that there's a certain you know we're pushing again the idea here. How does it become more relevant when we think that there is an event that happens year-round now in Parks on the Air, that allows us to do many of the same things.
Speaker 1:And for the ARRL. I think there's a lot of opinions right now about the ARRL and I'd be curious to see how they respond to the evolving change of parks on the air and the criticism of field day, the enjoyment of field day. I saw someone post you know it's my annual club barbecue and radio day out in the field and they kind of made that as a negative comment. I'm like oh, that actually sounds kind of awesome.
Speaker 2:I was going to say I had a hell of a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so field day can be whatever you want it to be, but again, I'd like to see how the air all responds and and that will also go a long way building back some of that faith and, let's say, the ham community I just wonder if it's, if it's frequency related, right.
Speaker 2:The more I break this down, the more I think about sorry, rory, I think I cut you off there and it's probably latency, but starlink, yeah, starlink I. I just think it's frequency related, right. Like, think about waiting. If I say, james, let's try running next year's field day, you can learn how to operate the radio next year in July or June, I'm sorry, right? So we're going to wait. What 11 months? Come on, guys, the information moves much more quickly these days, I hate to say it, right, the internet is prevalent. The way that we operate is different, right? I think that field day needs to take some pointers right from other operating methods that we're using. I don't know, I'm curious what folks are thinking about it.
Speaker 2:I still enjoyed the hell out of field day and I will tell you, I think South Lyon was a microcosm of a bigger turnout than last year, right, in that we had more folks turn out. We had excited folks turn out that were stoked to be out there and involved in an active club. So we probably bucked the trend in a certain way, even though we didn't score any better than we did last year. We had more folks show up and, honestly, I appreciated that more than the points. So that's how I feel about it. I thought it was still a success and I agree with you, james, if it's just radio and barbecue, I love it. Let's do it again next year at the end of June.
Speaker 1:Rory's turn. Now Go, Rory.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Rory.
Speaker 3:Well, we all know the ratio of speaking, even when you're on the local repeater. Jim's going to give the full three minutes on the repeater every time to my you know seconds or or whatever it is that I say, and usually half of my transmissions on the repeater have to do with the traffic I'm driving in. So anyway, um, it's just how we are. That's why this works.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, when we were planning for field day, I remember I told you, jim, I said we really need to push the, the cookout portion and make sure we're inviting the entire club out for the cookout, because and part of that was my thought with that was, you know, the, the radio side of it, isn't as big of a draw as it once was for, for whatever reason, whether it's poter or other, but let's keep the camaraderie and the social side of it and the family side of it alive and get people out for for that part of it. And we had a good turnout. You know, steve and our friend steve and 8ar showed up and and he sat at the table and and and just talked to everybody. He didn't touch a radio the whole time. I wonder the last time steve went on hf actually, steve was doing steve things steve was loving every minute every moment he
Speaker 3:was telling stories and he got sitting. He sat down with Shane, our friend Shane KFE BWN, and they were banging at some command line stuff on the Sherry and Steve was learning stuff from Shane and Shane was learning stuff from Steve and it was just fun to sit back. I grabbed a beer and sat down and watched them do their thing. So that's so much of it. It's you know what I really like. I said earlier it's not all about the radio. But let me summarize Mel's W3F, pyfs post here and again Ham since 1957. And we hear a lot of the older folks in the hobby saying you know, pota clogs up the airwaves and all that. But this guy has the complete opposite and I enjoyed his last paragraph of that. Pota is the future of ham radio. I believe I am now 82 and expect that in the foreseeable future I might be limited to local parks to which I can Uber, or even an assisted living table and mag loop. So he's ready to keep doing POTA for the rest of his days.
Speaker 3:So that tells you and you should, as long as you you know, and and and his, his thoughts on field day were not that, not nearly that positive, so I don't know. Shout out to you, mel, I don't know that you'll ever hear this. Thanks for your article, and maybe we'll get you in the logs someday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was going to say Steve, back to the NAR. You basically hosted his own Apple Genius Bar. Laptops started coming out. He was building Sherry kits with people and coding and doing all sorts of stuff and that was fun.
Speaker 3:I guess we'll throw a plug there. If anyone's looking for an all-star node, a good quality all-star node, the best all-star node, a good quality all-star node, the best all-star node, that we can say that that is completely engineered here in the metropolis of howell, michigan, marion township, to be exact. Uh, go to kits4hamscom that's the number four and uh, it's a full service operation. You can buy the kit, you can buy it all put together and the item is warrantied for Steve's lifetime. I don't know if.
Speaker 2:I'd make any promises on warranties.
Speaker 1:He will live forever. Oh, I was saying on warranties.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I want to make any promises on warranties.
Speaker 1:No, that is his warranty. He's told me the same thing.
Speaker 3:He'll tell you that His daughter and son-in-law were out at field day and James and I had a good time talking to them and they reminded us that's his warranty as well.
Speaker 2:I've never heard him say it. I can't believe it. I thought you guys were making something up there.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 2:I do have a new item. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 3:I did get the new Sherry, based on the Pi 5. It's in the Neo case. It has a built-in fan. That is becoming my primary all-star node in the house here and I have started the migration to ASL 3.
Speaker 1:That's going to be a whole episode in itself one day. By the way, Rory's take on ASL 3 and his inability. Well, he had a lot of settings. He didn't want to update his customizations and have to redo all the work. That is exactly right, yeah, and I don't blame him there.
Speaker 3:I don't hate it. I'll tell you that. It has some advantages.
Speaker 2:It has some advantages. I have mine running just across the camper here and it is working Excellent. It has been working Excellent. I talked to Rory from the fire pit, uh, many, many miles from the NAD repeater yesterday evening on the Starlink again. So it's my favorite camping gear. That is a plus one from me over here. But are you setting this one up with the Wistie 8 Echo Delta hotel thing going Is?
Speaker 3:that what this one is, or is this going to be your primary? No, it's going to replace my primary home, one which gets pretty much nonstop use connected to something. So the old one I'm going to actually give to Steve to look at it has some quirks and I'm going to have him look at it and see what he thinks it likes to reboot for no apparent reason. I thought it was a power supply issue. I don't think it is. I think it's something in the sherry. So I am going to take advantage of of the steep lifetime warranty.
Speaker 2:so and you replaced the pie. Too right you play.
Speaker 3:That has a new pie in it to be fair, that was my first sherry from him. I I've had that long enough. I've had it longer than I've been reactive in the club. I got that from. I got that from him through mail, I think at the first part of covet when we were stuck at home. It was something I wanted to putz with. So I want to say, really August of 2020. And that thing's been on the air, connected to a couple of really busy networks, ever since then. So I'm not disappointed that that it's given me any trouble.
Speaker 2:Well, any final thoughts, guys, on field day in general or the experience that we had? And, like I said, we talk about everything on Everyday. Ham, if you disagree with us, that's okay. We love to hear your counterpoints down in the comments and we can be swayed. We would love to have those things in our quiver next time we chat about a topic like this. Any last thoughts, though, on field day before?
Speaker 1:we close it up. My last thought before we close is what's everyone's take? Do you please copy or no? Please copy, no. I'm sure they're expenses. What's everyone's take? It do you?
Speaker 3:please copy or no, please copy no expenses. So do we, let's, let's, let's do a couple things here so people know what we're talking about, because there's people who have never field date, field date a day in their life. So there there is, of course, as in any contest, there is an exchange um the. The one person calls the other person. Oh, I could you know what. I could go on a whole. Let me look at the timer. No, I'm not going to give you guys that class and section for field day right oh, the people who don't give the exchange in the right order.
Speaker 3:I, I had to give the snarky november 8th, sierra lima, your exchange please, and then they would get confused. But that's because they had already screwed up and I just was angry. But uh, now you guys all know have heard anyone who's listened to this once has heard that I tend to be pretty brief on the radio and I want to exchange my information and I want to move on, and field day is is no exception. So, uh, cq, field day, cq, field day, november 8th, sierra lima. Someone would reply, reply. And then you would reply and say, uh, november 8th, sierra lima, someone would respond, reply. And then you would reply and say november 8th sierra lima for alpha michigan. And then you would expect something back from them, nothing more. I give, nothing more than that.
Speaker 3:But there's this thing where people like to say november 8th sierra lima, please copy for alpha michigan. What do you need, please copy? For what else are you going to do with it? Of course you're going to write it down. What do you need, please copy? For what else are you going to do with it? Of course you're going to write it down. What do you need?
Speaker 1:to say please copy, for I also say 73 and thanks. So I'm a very Midwesterner moment there. I don't think anyone, I'm one OAP away.
Speaker 3:I've got a lot of OAPs, but you get a 73 out of me, but you don't get any thanks. I'll tell you that. So let's plug our our best friend sebastian and uh yes, at the polo logging software ham 2k and um. He had some fun with the please copy, so he made his. Uh, I love this ham 2k polo software.
Speaker 3:He's improving it every, every day, like we like we discussed and uh, and one of the things he did add this year was the ability to do field day logging using that platform and he did write into the code. When you get to the exchange, if someone says please copy for alpha, you can type in pc4a, meaning please copy for alpha, because that's what they sent you, and at the end in your log you could go to the summary tab and it would tell you the percentage of people that said please copy. I love it. I laughed because that's just such a thing that I would have kept track of. I do not say please copy, I don't have it in me.
Speaker 2:I like that. Sebastian has expanded this product even further than we ever thought it would go plus one to sebastian again. We'll give him another plug here for free. We love him, um, and also, that is hilarious.
Speaker 3:When rory said it was a thing that he added right before field day, I said what I love, it's just such a such a nice little extra yeah, it was funny because eric kdrs uh, president of the southland club, my friend eric he he sent me that link link of sebastian explaining that on one of the other youtube channels because he knew that would be right. In my alley I get a random message from eric at quarter to six in the morning with a link. I'm like what's going on? And uh, that was that. He said you got to watch this. I'm like I'm not even up yet, i'll'll watch it later.
Speaker 2:But it was worth the watch.
Speaker 3:Eric knows me well enough. He gave me the time stamp because he knew I wouldn't watch the whole thing, nice, nice and I had a really good laugh.
Speaker 1:And that was a lousy morning, as most of them are. Wait, so am I the only please copy guy. Jim, are you not a please copy guy?
Speaker 2:I believe I may have please copied, and then I started feeling like I shouldn't be please copying. So then I was just like NASL 4 Alpha Mike India.
Speaker 3:Do what you do. Don't think you have to conform to my.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I'll still give my thanks and my please copy. Don't you worry about that. I'll be true to myself here.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, so we're coming on to Fourth of July weekend. Anyone have any POTA plans for Fourth of July weekend? I am headed north. I'll be in northern lower Michigan. I am going to swing through where Jim's at. I think I'm going to swing through there on Friday.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Unless I'm warned to avoid the area at that time I'm going to do. I'm attempting to do a rove, I think, friday morning between Alpena and Mackinac. We'll see what happens. I've got to make a plan for that and then I'll swing down to Gaylord. That will probably be the plan.
Speaker 1:I'll be at home trying to track you doing fireworks with the kids, and that's about my plans for the radio stuff.
Speaker 3:You'll be able to see where I'm at. I'll be on APRS WAKNSX-9.
Speaker 1:I will remind both of you, microphones for audio and get some B-roll. It would be probably interesting if you guys meet up on the 4th here for some footage. I have my mics, I have my tripod and I'm ready and I will try to record, and I say that because we are all the worst at that.
Speaker 2:We are the worst.
Speaker 1:It's the best of times, it's the worst of times.
Speaker 2:I'll be trying to get Otsego Lake again and, like I said, the East Jordan Fish Hatchery for sure. So I'm going to try to get my name up the list there and that's my plan for July 4th. But, looking forward to it, I think I am going to set the HF Radio up, maybe this evening after we wrap this thing up, and maybe I'll call out with the Whiskey 8 Everyday Ham if I get all kinds of fired up on these Corona NA beers that I'm having this evening.
Speaker 1:Oh, boy, and I guess before we formally close episode seven, go get them Episode eight. We have maybe a special guest coming up, someone from one of the big three manufacturers, so stay tuned for that. That will be in our August episode.
Speaker 2:Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really, really excited for that. Hopefully it's a good discussion. Seems like a great person, so we're excited to bring that to you and we appreciate them making the time for us as well.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say it is awesome to hear that we have somebody willing to come and join us on the Everyday Ham podcast Deal with all this. We'll try to be on our best behavior for that.
Speaker 3:I may have to tone it down just a bit for a guess.
Speaker 2:All right guys.
Speaker 1:One last reminder. One last reminder, please, everydayhamcom, please like and subscribe Five-star reviews, all the good things. You can find all our information there, but, jim, you know 73s guys.
Speaker 2:You can find all information there. But, jim, you know 73s guys. I appreciate the from the remote operating station of the back 40 of the KC8 NTE property. This is N8JRD signing off for the evening.
Speaker 1:It has been a pleasure that deep radio, that radio closing Well, 73 from KJKU.
Speaker 3:Thanks everyone 73, good night.
