Hello and welcome to Ham Nation episode
631 for September 9th, 2026.
Hey, hello everybody. I'm Josh, KI6NA,
sweltering in the Southern California
heat. The heat wave is back on and uh we
got to we got to get uh away from me
because I'm just going to start
sweating. So, let's say hi to our our
hosts of Packed House tonight of Packed
House. While I sweat, I'll let you guys
uh go through it. Gordo, you're looking
cool though with that amazing shirt,
your surfboards on. How's it going in
sunny Costa Mesa? Um, all is well and we
went to cool off with the small waves
off the coast. Only 8 to 12 feet tall
and I got my butt kicked on the first
wave and in two weeks we'll show you
how.
>> There you go. Hey, at least you're
staying cool though. The Pacific's nice
and warm though. Warmer than than usual.
Randy is back. And how are you doing,
sir?
>> I'm doing fine. It's 81 degrees here in
up in the hilltop in Cold Beach. So,
it's a heat wave here. I I've got the
air on today. So,
>> my goodness,
>> it's like the second maybe the third
time this year I've had the air on. Wow.
So,
>> wow.
>> Yeah.
>> Don, you're looking fresh as well. How
are you doing?
>> I'm okay. Let me see what the
temperature is here. It's uh 82.
>> It wasn't nearly as nearly as hot today.
Um it was actually quite comfortable. We
had some
>> some We had rain cooled yesterday. I was
out walking during one of my one of my
three walks during the workday while a
and a gust front had just come through
an outflow boundary which I'd love
outflow boundaries and gust fronts. It
was man it cooled everything off. There
wasn't any rain. It was it was smell so
good. It was I love it. Loved it. Loved
it. Loved it. Hey, we've got a Speaking
of weather, we've got a huge huge huge
uh solar weather report from Dr. T
tonight. It the actual video that she
produced was 24 minutes long. So
obviously I had to do some editing but
still it's it's a big big big report and
after you watch it tonight I invite you
to go actually I urge you to go check it
out on YouTube her her Titha Cove site
over there
is it's complicated.
>> It's it's Yeah, it is. It's very
complicated.
>> Amanda, how are you doing?
>> Oh my gosh. So, first of all, I'm
totally exhausted because last week
Colorado was W1EW stroke zero and it
just ended for us. Um, I think it Yeah,
last night. And I got to tell you guys,
Colorado made over 10,000 cubes.
>> Oh my gosh. Bad. Really had 3,300.
>> We rock it when we get on the air. And I
did,500 of those. And one dude that did
FT8, I I'm pretty sure that he just he
must have taken the week to work from
home and he got 1,500 FT8 contacts.
Amazing. So anyhow, we had a really fun
time with that prop was perfect. It was
fun. 40 could have been a little bit
better, but we had a great time. So not
only that, then now I'm getting ready to
go to the Colorado Cuso party and
hunting. So I'll be portable camper with
the rifle ready to go. actually with a
muzzle loader. But anyhow, so I'm busy
busy busy, but still trying to get on
the radio as much as possible. And I've
got some hammer candidates for you
tonight, but I am going to be taking off
early. So you get the pleasure of
getting those early right after the icon
commercial tonight. So
>> yes, I know. But I've got some I've got
some goodens for y'all. So thanks for
joining us tonight. And um Gordo, we're
going to let you take it away. What you
got for us tonight?
>> All right. Well, for those of you on
high frequency thinking about, oh, I'd
like to do it mobile, we've got just the
answer here, including portable. So,
let's take a look and see what it's
like. As you know, for field day, a lot
of operators went out there and were on
the air with all sorts of uh base
station type rigs, but a lot of us like
the mobile ops for field day because
it's a good test case of an emergency. a
pair of uh uh pliers. Um, wait a minute.
You mean they can help out with some
sort of an antenna?
>> 10 for good buddy.
>> Yep.
>> Yeah, they can. Um, the uh mobile
antennas for most applications are
either hamstable
mobile antennas and they usually
terminate most of them to a 384 thread.
Well, this is type of a little mobile uh
uh mount that you could put on a
chainlink fence or on a rail of a
sailboat or a power boat. And it's got
just the perfect hole waiting for the
right duad. Well, this is the right dad.
On the left is an SO239
and on the right side is the brass 3H24
threaded ready to accept an adapter for
you to screw in your antenna. And this
is a misunderstood connector. So let's
take a look and see. Uh first of all u
you need the uh double female 38 24
thread for you to screw into uh the
mount as well as to your antenna. And
see that little white thing. Don't lose
it. That little white thing is the
insulator. If you get it on the wrong
side that we found with a ham the other
day when we were doing a ham instructor
class and uh we were doing live demos.
Uh he kept saying, "Well, I just don't
have the range." Well, I can tell you
why. Uh you have the little duad, the
white insulator on the wrong side. The
white insulator has a little teeny
groove in it. And if you maneuver it
carefully, and by the way, they also
come in black, says Susie, reminding me
that uh they're either white or black.
Now, you got it the right way. Now, you
may say, "Well, that's great. I've now
got that brass thing sticking up. I've
got the SO239 on the bottom. I'm ready
to roll." Caution. You don't want to
hang a big antenna like a big Outbacker
or something with a big loading coil on
it because what will occur is that
antenna will leverage out and now it's
going to fly off your car and end up on
the freeway as mine did because it
pulled that brass connector. It's just
swedged in. It's not like soldered in or
or welded in. It's just swedged in to
the bottom side.
So, if everything is looking correct,
this is going to be a good install. Your
coax is going to go in the bottom, and
you want to make sure that you've got a
good PL259
coax connector. And for high frequency,
you can get away fine with RG8X.
You don't need to use the LMR 400 or
anything major. There's like 0.5 dB loss
for 100 ft on the 20 meter band. 100 ft
mobile. I don't know what you're
driving, you probably got 10 or 15 feet.
So, the plain old RG8X is fine to work
with. Um, the RG8X comes with a diamond
mount and you can see their big white
insulator that is uh on top of that
ready to accept the 3824
uh whip. So if you got a big antenna
like this, it's probably going to be
okay. But I would put a small little
monofilament line on it. So it's not
going to overstress the 3H24 brass stub
coming out of that magic connector. Uh
because it could very well pull it right
out. Here's another one. And we got to
be cautious. This is with a black
insulator. That black insulator is
looking pretty tired. But the antenna is
held up quite nicely like this. Well,
this operator kept saying that uh their
uh system um was just not working right.
So, I put a meter on it. And I said,
"Well, the system looks like there's a
short in it." The operator said, "Well,
sure there's a short in it. I have a a
matching uh inductor and you can see it
on the left, the gold one, uh 15 turns
or maybe 10 turns to bring the impedance
back up to 50 ohms on 40 meters. He says
that's shorted to ground. And I said,
"No, no, no. That's going to look like
about 2 or 3 ohms. I'm reading a direct
short." Well, if you look real
carefully, you can see that the
insulator between the bottom has
completely disintegrated and indeed it's
a short beyond that. It's good to go to
these different demos where you can show
off ham radio to the public because it
allows us to get out there and get on
the air and actually try things rather
than just sort of imagine them. And of
course, those rigs, the newer rigs these
days are wonderful, but some you really
can't see well in the uh sunlight. And
uh this is why the magic boxes are a
good thing. And you've seen them at
Hamfest. These magic boxes uh uh come in
many different styles, so I won't name
any brand name, but you'll see them at
Hamfest. Uh they allow you to put in a
couple of different rigs and there's
plenty of room in there that you can
sneak a bowen battery. Uh that's a
lithium ion phosphate battery in the
back, a 12 amp year and you're portable.
I mean, you aren't not connected to
anything DC wise. Uh the Coast Guard
auxiliary that I work with, uh we use
these magic boxes and uh they quite
nicely adapt to just about any type of
installation and it's a nice sanitary
installation as opposed to what you'll
see on our final uh uh slide here. So
the boxes are magic, but the match to
let's say a 40 meter antenna is probably
going to need some more inductance at
the base feed point. Yeah, you can get
out your thumb and wrap wire around it
and come out with what might be a good
match uh the correct number of
millhenries or microhenries to get it to
work. But you know, if you can find one
of these still in uh uh relatively good
condition, this is the MFJ Swan. Oh
yeah, we remember the Swan Cubic. Uh uh
they had one as well. It allows you to
add inductance or subtract inductance
and it works quite nicely. So if ever
you see one of these little magic mat
box, they are for changing uh the
impedance. Now caution, they do not work
well if your antenna receives 12 volt to
run it up or down like the ADIS
antennas. You don't want anything in
between the ATAS Yazu antennas that have
the power that goes up the coax won't
make it through the magic box here. But
let me tell you, this is what we use in
the communications van and boy, it takes
40 m that sort of takes a dip at uh
7250. You put this in place. Click,
click, click. Oh boy, the noise comes
up. SWR takes a nose dive and you're
set. Normally, you won't ever have to
change that setting, so you can sort of
hide it out of the way.
Uh, when you're doing hamfests at county
fairs and so on, it's always good to
have good-looking equipment and an
operator that's good with HF. And that's
a great way to get kids involved by
getting them on the air as third-party
traffic. And of course, if ever you go
maritime, mobile, or just plain mobile,
this is my bag of uh somewhat ugly
looking tricks, but it's a triple
breakdown outbacker, and you can still
find them at Hamfest uh out and around.
They're a goodie because they'll just
fit inside a carry-on bag, and uh we're
all ready to go and in a rental car.
It's a great way to get it on the air.
And uh thanks to Diamond and Common and
all the others that make the great
mounts, those with a 3/8 24 thread,
you're ready to go. But remember, you
may need to do some impedance matching
and then you'll be on the air solid. So
this is Gordo WB68 and I hope to hear
you on the air. Amanda,
>> well, thank you. Did you see that
comment there on the bottom for you?
That was an amazing comment from
Interstellar Starman. Gordo is such a
rock star. is a blessing to the ham
community. I enjoy his sharing his
wisdom. So do we all. Yes,
>> absolutely. True words.
>> Yep. You're definitely a treasure to us,
Gordo. I appreciate that. But there was
a question also and maybe someone
answered it in chat, but what brand of
boxes are those?
>> Um the brand of the box, there's about
six of them. And if you come back to me
right after your presentation, I'll look
at the box in the background here and
I'll give you the name. comes out of
Orange, California. So, give me just a
minute and I'll give you a fast
response.
>> All right. Any other questions? Josh,
did I miss?
>> I'm I had some chat difficulty, but I'm
on now. I I didn't see uh a lot other
than everybody agreeing with you. The
the nylon spacer, the importance of the
nylon spacer.
>> Yeah, nylon.
>> That's right.
>> Okay. Well, we're gonna kick it over to
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today.
A huge thank you to Icon. Thanks so much
for sponsoring us here at hamnation.
Every time we go live, if you go to the
first link in the video description,
it'll take you to the hamnation.
icomamea.com
website. And if you click enter now and
give details like your call sign,
although you don't have to have one, as
well as your name, you can be entered
for a chance to win one of three swag
packs that we give away every time we
are live. And at the end of the month,
all the swag pack winners from across
the year that we are in, they'll pick a
name out and that person wins a radio.
So, let's take a look. What are we
potentially giving away at the end of
September? Well, one of my favorite
radios, the ID50A,
which is a radio that you can start on a
Friday and it'll run you all the way
through a Sunday. Uh, I know because
I've tested it. The radio has a
wonderful battery. It lasts a very long
time. It's a very efficient radio. So,
that's going to be a big winner uh for
for one lucky person the next time we
are live. Our prize winners though for
the swag pack are Stuart MV4T,
David C. N I7R O, and Jeffrey K E6 I JC.
Now, earlier in the show, Gordo
mentioned going to like a fair and
setting up a booth at a fair. Well, it
turns out I'm going to be at kind of a
fair. I'm going to be at the Maker Fair
in Orange County, which is going to be
at the Orange County Fairgrounds. It's
this weekend, so I'm going to be out
there on Saturday most likely. And I'm
told that there's going to be a number
of hams, potentially some ham radio
booth space that I'll be checking out.
So, if you are in the area, you might
want to check it out. The OC MakerFair.
So, appreciate those are fun. Those are
fun.
>> Yeah. No, no, I'll I'll be there. I'll
be there. And wait. Oh Josh, the name of
that uh box is I as in India portable P
O R T A B L E Pro from Sierra Kilo Bravo
S KB in nearby Orange, California. So
you'll have a booth there at the show,
Gordo?
>> No, but I'll be there with you.
>> Oh, okay.
Well, excellent. Okay. Well, I'll look
for you there. Another big thank you to
Icon. Thank you so much for the support
and for all the winners.
Congratulations. We're going to Amanda
early in the show. Get your hype level
up because it is time for Hammet Can It
or what, Hammet?
>> Oh, and I have some I have some doozies
tonight. But I do have to say about the
fair thing. This is just a reminder to
all of you clubs out there. If you're
looking for membership drives or to get
people into amateur radio and you're
trying to up your VE sessions, anything
like that, always find those kind of
fairs and rent a booth. They're usually
pretty affordable and you know, you
don't have to rent power or anything cuz
y'all know how to you're suffic
self-sufficient and you can bring your
batteries and show off your little Icon
705s and wow the crowd with something
and um backup communications is getting
bigger and bigger. So, uh just just a
pro tip there. Look for those kinds of
fairs and you guys have fun with that.
Okay, let me share my screen here.
>> All righty. When I see it, I will switch
over to you.
>> I just have to find the right screen.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I?
>> Who am I? What am I? I don't know who I
am.
>> You ever watch a Neil Breen movie? Neil
Breen, anybody? Private creator of
movies. Fantastic guy. Fantastic movies.
>> Um, okay. We see it. Oh, it's the
Megatron.
>> I've been watching the Dust.
>> Oh, that's cool.
>> I I kind of like it looks straight out
of Halo for me.
>> It looks like Megatron from the new
Transformers movies. I have never
customized a radio, but now Ham Gear
Tech Gear, dude, you have inspired me to
maybe want to um
>> to just liven up one of my handhelds and
uh see what I could do with it.
>> I like it. Let's bring bedazzling back.
Let's bedazzle our bow.
>> Oh, there you go. Yeah,
>> that is in the in the in the world of 3D
printing, this is not difficult to do
these days and affordable decals and
things like that. So, this is pretty
awesome. And yeah,
>> that's cool to see to in in memory of
Peter Cullen who was the voice of
>> That's right.
>> Optimus Prime who just passed away.
>> That's true.
>> Yeah. So that's cool. That's very cool.
>> Okay, what do we got here? When is the
last time someone from the government
made your life better? This starts good.
>> Let me see what year is it?
And this person says, "Whoever does the
National Weather Service updates for the
ham radio broadcast, that's about all I
can think of."
>> But it's not ham radio, right? They're
talking about Noah,
>> I think. So, I think they have it wrong.
But, um, maybe ham radio rebroadcast it
because, you know, amateur radio, we
don't actually, we're not allowed to
broadcast anything. Correct. So, um, I
think this is integration, but you're on
the right path there, Mr. Peg. But um
yeah, I can't I think the last time the
government did me good was when I was 16
and I got my driver's license. That's
about it. So that's that's
>> Hurricane Center uh relies on ham radio
and shares that with the broadcast.
>> Sure.
>> A lot of that.
>> Okay.
>> A ton.
>> Now for some new stuff. Now, you guys,
to be honest, I I clicked on this uh
while I was eating my taco before
dinner, before the show tonight, but
they said that they have a beta version
of um Pota.app out. So, I clicked on it
just to look at it. Now, maybe I just
wasn't on the right site, but I didn't
notice a single difference. So, um we'll
have you guys check it out and see if
there's any difference and or an upgrade
to the pod.app. Have you been on it,
Josh?
>> Oh, yeah. I've got it right here. Um,
yeah. So, the spots page looks a little
different. So, this is how they're
tracking spots now. So, you can say that
it's a similar It's a similar list.
>> It's a similar design. It's very similar
to how they've done things in the past.
But to be honest with you, uh, there's
not a what worked. Let's not change the
look and feel of it. Let's just make it
more effective. And so, that's what it
looks like.
>> So, yeah, cuz before, wasn't it just
like you had a square like kind of a
rectangle with your little
>> boxes?
This is more efficient. Yeah,
>> I think so, too. I kind of like that.
Okay. Well, that's a good change, you
guys. So, whoever does that.
>> Yeah. And they got some activators out
here. Oregon, right here. South Dakota.
Hey, South Dakota. Who needs 50? Who
needs their 50 states? There you go. Oh,
somebody said go to map. I don't even
know how to go to map.
>> Oh, did they make the map better? Oh,
that's big news. If they made the map
better. The map was difficult.
>> Oh, that's nice.
>> Um, that is very nice. I like that a
lot.
>> Yeah.
Well, okay then. So, there are some good
upgrades to it. You guys enjoy?
>> That's pretty good. There's my park.
That's the one. That's the one I need.
>> That's yours. That's your Josh's park.
>> The most common park I activate. Yeah.
>> Okay. What else have we got? Oh, uh this
is just a friendly friendly reminder
that Route 66 is starting the 12th ever.
That's one of uh a lot of people's
favorites to go chase. Um right after
the 13 colonies. Yeah, it's true though.
The only thing I can say is I think this
is going to cause me a problem with the
Colorado Qo party this weekend, but um I
I still like to chase them.
>> Oh, yeah. Put it in your spotting logs
and tracking and alerts and everything
and be on it.
>> Yep.
>> There you go. All right. What does Salty
Dog have to say tonight? If you have a
cam radio, then you're wasting your time
on here. And this meaning Twitter.
>> Oh, I don't get it.
>> I It's It's not true. I first of all,
Twitter has a wealth of information,
good information. Also, a wealth of
rapid information.
>> Rapid is a nice way to say of dubious
quality in some cases.
>> You'll find Dr. T on Twitter.
>> I just don't understand what's the
point.
>> Find me. We should get all of our news
on ham radio. Like, that's not feasible.
>> He's he's on ham radio or he's on
Twitter, so he's wasting his time.
>> So, he doesn't have a ham license.
>> Yeah, possibly.
>> Does he have a ham license?
We
>> first of all, I've never seen a dog get
a license before. So, that's a real
license for a dog. Then, uh he's he's
one of those nine calls, you know, K9.
>> Yeah. Yep. K9.
Okay. What else do we got? Um Oh, this
one's interesting. Mesh core repeaters
should be mandatory on all radio towers.
Someone should invest in deploying their
own mesh tower system. Oh, yes. We would
all love to do that. Um I suspect tower
rental space from
commercial organizations would price
them out and then uh
>> a rational person did uh reply to want
lots of money customers rare even to get
access for ham radio used for public
safety purposes. Absolutely true. So
it's it's not for lack of trying
everybody when you if you're if you're a
mesh core user and you're like why
aren't don't we have more on mountain
tops? This is why American Towers,
Castle, Crown Castle, is it? There's
some some major players that own all of
these radio sites and all of these
towers and they lease them out even to
our government, our federal government
and our local governments and they they
cost top dollar. The only places um
where amateur radio gets their repeaters
in usually is like a forest service or a
BLM tower or they squeak in there
because of the fact that a ham happens
to work for one of these companies.
Okay. Exactly.
>> Also, I mean, repeater owners, they
could put up a mesh cord repeater if
they wanted to, right?
>> They could. Yeah.
>> Yes. So, here's the deal, though, and I
don't want to get into a lot of the
nitty-gritty of it, but with Mesh Core
and you put up one of those radios, and
and I'm talking only from things I have
picked up listening to others that has
been offered before for them to put
those on sites, but that you have to
have a control operator and you have to
be able to shut it off and things like
that in case it starts to cause
interference with all of this other
commercial equipment that's there. So,
if you can't guarantee doing those
things, you're usually not going to get
permission to be on those sites.
>> I believe you can. If you pay for the
admin app, then you can actually RF
connect in if you have a a clear path.
And if it's on a repeater site, then you
then you should be able to I' I can do
that from my home.
>> Very. That's good knowledge. So, those
are some of those are some of the things
keeping mesh core off of more tower
sites.
>> Yeah, I can see that though. Yeah. Yeah,
we've got a we've got a mesh core uh
repeater up at Stennis Space Center. I
think it's up at I know the repeater
antenna is at 400 feet and I think the
uh the mesh core is up there pretty
pretty dogone close at that SP Stennis
space the N5 SSC radio club.
>> Very funny there till it hurts.
>> I thought that was very funny.
>> Only slightly harder.
>> Oh, I know that guy.
>> So, this is um
How do I start? Okay, let's just start
with what he's saying. Yes. Um, Greyman
is asking people to not be such radio
elitist and thinks that it's damaging
the amateur radio community. Okay. So,
um me and and he explains it in this
video and you can go see it on his um on
his uh tweet there that he's basically
just telling us to stop being so grumpy
about bow fangs and the zoo and all of
those kind of radios. And I just I felt
kind of like offended
um that he says that people are
splitting the community up by anybody
being an elitist. Okay, I own an icon.
It doesn't make me an elitist because
I've never asked anybody like, okay,
let's just take WAWW. I picked out 30
operators for last week. Not one of them
did I ask them what radio they were
going to be using on the air before I
approved them to be one of the
operators. So, I find it like how
elitist are you if you're not asking
people and making them register their
radios with you so that you can be a
good operator, be considered a good
operator. I would say that um in my
personal opinion, I'm more of a an
antenna elitist where I would look down
at people's antennas that they're using
more than their radios. Um let's say the
group
>> Well, I don't think I don't think his
comment is is aimed at you because
you're not an elitist,
>> right? I just didn't really I guess I
didn't realize they were
>> though.
>> I have I have my little I have my time
slot on 7200, you guys. I mean, it is
>> that is Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
exactly. They're such an organized group
that they have time slots.
>> Yeah, he's got a great YouTube channel.
>> He does. And I appreciate all of his
videos. I just I felt like, wow, I
didn't realize that this is a thing.
>> There are some operators who do
stigmatize the
cheap Chinese radios. And I put that in
air quote because I've got one. I bought
a couple of um I bought a couple of
these guys right here at Huntsville. The
uh
>> the UV5R mini
cleanest radio bell fangs ever made.
>> I've got a UV5R
under some under a pile of whatever I've
got over here somewhere.
>> Yep. You know.
>> Yeah. I mean, and and further
and icons, too. So,
>> exactly. I
>> You never have too many. He's he goes
further in the radio in in the video
basically and someone was explaining it
on chat like um we're slamming these
radios and telling them they're not real
hands. That's a I would I could not ever
consider that. Like
>> no, you wouldn't. But
>> I'm praising amateur radio that it's
cheaper to get into than it ever has
been because of these radios and I'm
prding it on that. So I guess I'm the
opposite.
>> Here's my hot take on this. Right. So I
I do remember when Bow Fangs first hit
first hit the market and on my YouTube
channel I would tell people it's just
just say it's a Yau just say it's an
icon and just get on with your day
because you really can tell but cuz
nobody like unless you tell them they're
not going to know.
>> False Josh they're not going to know.
They're not going to know because they
forget to turn off the Roger BP exactly.
>> Well wait wait wait wait but Yau's had
that problem too with the sync button.
Remember the sync button on the FTC
button the wires button. Yeah, remember
that. Anyway, the the point though is
we've now come to a a point where uh
yes, the bow fangs when they came out
were not that great, right? We got
further along and now some of these
radios, a lot of them are full of
Chinese parts from any manufacturer. And
so, how far like we're almost ship
theist our way into the into the hobby.
Like, is it is it like what radio is it
right now? The the Chinese radios have
gotten a lot better. They're cheap.
>> So, you know, but we Chinese.
>> Does that make this cheap Chinese junk?
My iPhone,
>> right? It is. It is. It is. Yeah. It's
full of Chinese parts.
>> No, it ain't cheap. No, that's a damn
script.
>> I I just haven't seen so much of this on
the air to be honest with you. Like, I
haven't I haven't seen this.
>> I have never And you know, the the
amount of times I ask people what
they're using is I only ask that
question when I run out of topics to
talk to somebody about. I'm like, "So,
what's your uh what's your setup?"
Because I just don't know what else to
talk about. That's it. That's the only
next on my list to talk about.
>> I swear it's rare.
>> Very, very rare.
>> It Listen, just just just so you know, I
have an Icon koozie. This is not a
Balfang koozie. This is
>> I bet it was made in China.
>> I don't know.
>> Um, so anyhow, I love my Icon and I also
have a Kenwood for my travel. I have a
705 for travel. I I had a cheap Chinese
amplifier. It did go kaput. I didn't
like it. And then I did slam it and said
it sucked, but I got what I paid for.
So, you know, um but other than that,
I've never ever judged anybody on the
the radio. I I just feel like who
>> That's a really That's a really good
point from N2YTA. I think I've only
asked what type of radio they have
>> because they sound good. I don't like I
I almost always attribute somebody who
maybe doesn't sound great to the
operator like the radio's either too far
from their face or too close to their
face or their their their top is down on
their convertible and they're doing 80
and they're trying to talk on the radio
like like
>> style.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're doing
>> gangster style.
>> They're giving it the blicky action on
the way they
>> Yeah. Yeah. totally 45. Yeah.
>> Don't do that. It's not going to be
accurate whatsoever. So great man. Thank
you for your take on it. I just I
slightly disagree. I and and I feel bad
if if you have ran into that personally
in your field and on your videos because
you're using a chai ch Chinese radio or
you think that people are being isolated
because of it. That sucks. I've just
I've never into it. So, it is what it
is.
>> All right, Gray, man. We'll allow it.
>> Okay, so we go right from elitist to
another elitist. Um it's so funny
because now I'm like this person says,
"Why would you ever need any more radio
equipment than this?" And then I'm like,
"Oh, shut up. Here is my lid."
>> Because they made another one.
>> Because they made another.
>> You know why? Cuz I could still see
white on that desk.
>> I know. There's still color on that
desk.
>> Plugs. There's still plugs to plug in
another power supply somewhere. So,
>> listen.
>> I'm going to show you my desk real
quick. Uh
>> oh. Here we go. We're getting real.
>> If I have if I have enough I don't have
enough wire. But you cannot you can't
tell you can't tell what's on my desk.
flat surfaces
>> because of the stuff on my desk.
>> Attract stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> Let me see. I I don't know what to do.
I'll take a picture of my desk. Just
This is my
>> Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The
amateur television network over my left
shoulder says there's no ATV there. Huh.
>> Oh, no. Yeah. See it? And I And I'm not
sure they have a rig to do satellite
work right now. I mean, it's just it's
lacking completely.
>> There's only one.
>> You know what? I don't care what brand I
don't care what brand you put in there.
Just get more. Get some more radios.
>> I'm almost embarrassed to show this, but
that's my desk.
>> Oh, wait, wait, wait.
>> Oh, there you go. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
>> there you go. You got all the radios.
>> Jesus. What happened?
>> Something blew up on it.
>> I'm kidding. If you guys saw my
embarrassing, if you saw my desktop
right now, you'd be like, "What happened
over there?"
>> Um, so same thing. Anyhow, this first of
all, this is way too clean. That's my
only judgment. Love your
>> See the pile behind me. I I I I have a I
have a height limit of the pile behind
me, so can only go so high.
>> Well, it falls over. Yeah.
>> Olivia, good job. You're you're you're
you looks like you're doing excellent in
your in your in your amateur radio
operations there. Okay,
>> here we go.
>> This AI is going to kill us. Greyman,
it's not going to be elitism that kills
us. It's going to be the
>> They already said that. They already
said that.
>> Um, let's see. Okay, so this person is
advertising for a new new website called
cqgram.com.
A place for ham radio folks to share
photos, videos, setups, moments from the
hobby. So another social media site
everybody remember two two weeks ago I
just told you about one and so it
totally looks like it too. It's like
pictures our frequency. I have not I'm
not joining this community. I'm not
joining anything else but unless I
unless I see a whole lot more people and
it takes off. But you know what's going
to happen is people will put pictures on
there and then I'll see them on
Instagram and X.
>> Yeah. Because they'll cross they'll
cross post. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So it's I don't know. Okay. You
you guys do you. If you want another
one, join it.
>> Next.
>> Okay. Um Okay. This is about the iPhone
um price. If everyone has seen the
pricing point on the new iPhone starting
at $2,000 and up to like 2400 or 2,800.
This person says, "Hard no. Bring back
memory cards. This is bananas. Talk to
me on a ham radio from now on because
of the set price of the new phones. Now,
all I can say is take care of your old
phones. Um, I think I have a 14 or a 15
and I I've got the Gorilla Glass
protectant on it, the Otter Box,
everything I can so that I don't I don't
have to buy a new one until, you know,
until they get crazy and say, "Oh, those
are start like Windows where they're
like, that's outdated and we're never
updating it again." and then you're
screwed and you have to buy the new one.
So,
>> or the battery just kind of wears out.
>> Yeah, the battery every time they do
like a software update, the battery
starts to go worse and worse and worse.
>> You can get those swapped out though.
Like
>> there's guys who will do that for you if
you take them to a place. But
>> that's true. And the screens too and and
I think most cams are um qualified to
probably change out their own screen if
you watch your YouTube video.
>> Yeah, you do need good tools. is you
need like a hot air reflow gun to to be
able to heat up the glass to be able to
lift it up. It's it's not trivial. Do
watch those videos. They're they're no
that's no joke.
>> Yeah. I saw this video about over in
China somewhere this guy YouTube went
over there and the these shops they sell
all the iPhone parts and he could buy
frames by the dozen just everything that
was in there. Shop after shop after shop
of all this stuff. I will say the time
has come though where Android and
iPhones have a much easier time of
integrating with ham radio. So
regardless of your $2,000 iPhone, don't
buy that one. If you don't like it,
don't buy that one. But your
three-year-old iPhone, three-year-old
Android, whatever, they can interface
with your HF radios, your handhelds in
ways that like we've never been able to
do before. And it's been it's been
really,
>> especially old tablets and such for
logging, going out on your photos. I
mean, you don't don't need any service
on them. Just But don't throw them away.
Um, for sure. So, okay. What else do I
have? I think this might be my last one.
Okay. This this club, I don't know what
this club is, but I want to be a part of
this club. We have a soda machine at the
Ham Radio Club that is privately owned
that we stock. One of the officers
posted a sheet on it last month asking
for a list of sodas that the membership
would like stock.
>> Oh, here we go. Oh, here we go. What's
Oh, what's the show more, Amanda? What's
the show?
>> Oh, I didn't show them.
>> What's the list? I need to know.
>> No, I didn't know. We need 10 machines.
Have no idea now.
>> What would be everybody hanging? I'm so
sorry.
>> What would be your I guess I I think
three. What would be your three top pick
for putting in at beer? Actually, you
know what? The right answer. Right
answer right out the shoot there.
>> I don't drink soda, so just give me a
yingling light and I'll be happy.
>> It's It's true. I don't drink any soda
either, but if it if it had iced tea
dispenser, I'm done. It's just
>> I think
>> I I think I would have to go with the
Yingling Amber personally, Don. That
would be my uh the amber's good. Yeah,
I've been
>> Dr. Pepper.
>> Mountain Dew Diet Coke or Coke Zero.
>> Have a diet in there for everybody. So,
beer. Dr. Pepper.
>> I Well, yeah, I think Gordo, we covered
the I think that was the first
recommendation is more beer.
>> We need a little Modello. We need a
little Modello in there. I like the Ying
black and blue starting to
>> I'm getting thirsty.
>> Canned coffee is a good idea. Canned
coffee is a really good idea
>> with you, brother.
>> Like those Japanese coffees. Yeah. No,
the Japanese canned coffees are
fantastic.
>> Yes. I'm not I'm not a folders person
myself. So, all right. What else do we
have? Oh, I do have one more. Okay.
>> Oh. Oh, jeez. Here we go. We got a Cyber
>> Ham Radio and Cybertruck people look up
KB5RZ
>> Coley. That is nice setup. Curious
question. What is the point of ham
radio? Get off of my page, Jeep guy. You
should know better than to ask a silly
question like that. Anyhow, let's check
out this dude's stuff.
>> Oh, it's like a folding screwdriver.
>> Yes, screwdriver on there. And obviously
for UHF, VHF. Um,
>> anyhow, that's that's cool as can be.
>> I mean, aside from the shape of the
Cybert truck,
>> it is skinned in stainless steel. That
is a ham's
>> dream of a material, right? Like
>> arrowproof, possibly boring. Absolutely.
That's great. Like the Delorean. What
ham's going to be like, "No, I'm going
to turn down a Delorean. You know how
many antennas I can put on this thing?"
Like that's like that's what I think
about it
>> every time. Like a breed love a breed
love on the side of a cybert truck. Why
haven't I seen a
>> a big brass breed love ball on the side
of a cyber truck? The big hole. Yeah,
>> the big hole in the side of the big
ball.
>> Just pop a hole in that sucker. Get it
done.
>> Well, good luck drilling a hole in it. I
mean,
>> okay. All right. This is absolutely my
>> Oh, you got one more. Okay. Yes.
>> One more. Coloradouso party. It
re-imagined New Weekend, all of the
things. Listen to a whole bunch of
Forest um out this weekend on Saturday,
8 a.m. to 1000 p.m. Mountain time. So,
that's that's it. That's all I got. That
are you portable for that, Amanda? Are
you ready?
>> I I am camper portable.
>> That's awesome. That's awesome.
>> Yeah. But but we uh take the camper out
in the tower trailer and put it up and
Jeff will be glassing for elk while I'm
making contacts. And then when it the
middle of the day when it's 80°, he'll
be in the camper also making contacts.
We'll be using it won't be my call sign,
it will be our club call sign because I
don't like to compete against all my
Colorado peeps. um just by myself
because you know being section manager I
feel like that's kind of
>> crummy. So anyhow I just try to
encourage everybody to get on the air
but yet try to stay competitive at the
same time. So listen for we zero fun we
zero fun if you hear us say hello. So
>> well somebody call
>> when you're out glassing cq elk
>> I could try.
>> Somebody mentioned AI a few minutes ago
and I saw this this is funny. This is
apppropo of nothing, but it I saw this
on Facebook. In the near future, AI is
going to tell a woman that she's going
to that she is wrong and to calm down.
And that, my friends, will be the end of
AI.
>> It absolutely will.
>> There you go.
>> That's right.
>> She's smiling now.
>> You guys, it has been a blast tonight.
Thank you. I'm going to jump off of here
and get packed up. So, 7:30 everybody.
See you in two weeks.
>> 73. good times.
>> And in June, we're going to have we're
going to have the Hamishian Bros on
>> to talk about what's coming up for them.
So, I think they have their awards open
and uh we're going to be discussing all
of that. So,
>> be safe. Have fun.
>> Randy, it's off to you, buddy.
>> My turn. Okay, let me uh bring up your
uh my screen.
>> Did you add another radio in there
somewhere, Randy?
>> Uh no, I don't. See, here's a good
example of an appropriate use of space.
Look how many ham radios Ry's got. He's
got a scanner in the upper right. He's
got a 9700, a 7610. He's got an old
school receiver on the right is I don't
know what that old school rece is
international or
>> it's a helicopter SX71.
>> Oh, I had one.
>> Yeah, he's got he's got everything. This
is a fantastic use of space. And then
there's all kinds of myriad of radios on
the top there. And and I don't know what
that is. Is that your uh rotor control?
>> Yeah, that's the rotor control.
>> That's a beauty.
>> Yeah.
>> When I grow up, I want to be Randy.
>> Seriously. And then look at all the desk
mats. The desk mats and everything. Look
how Look how clean and awesome this
shack is. A beautiful shack.
>> I used to like you, Randy.
>> Yeah. Yeah. These big mouse pad map
things are great because your mouse is
never running off the edge anywhere.
>> Wonderful.
>> Yeah. And you're way too organized.
wireless keyboard and yeah,
>> not sure we can be friends anymore,
>> but I'll make an exception for you.
>> And I got a was it APRS gateway?
>> Oh, he's got a he's got APRS rocking,
too, guys. Come on. Come on. And it is
countdown timer for doomsday above his
head there. That's great.
>> Nice.
>> Okay, now we can share the screen here.
>> I love it.
>> One of my favorite shacks, Randy. Good
job. Yeah,
>> absolutely. Okay. So, I got email from
the, you know, Amanda this thing about
lunchtime with my name on it. I said I
can be on. I don't have anything, but I
can ramble.
>> Thank you for hopping on too. Ramblers
and Randy again. Here we go.
>> I can I can do some rambling here.
>> So, I'm going to talk about Skyroof,
a UHF Moxon,
whatever that is. Yeah.
>> In 20 years of
>> Oh, yeah.
Oh, wait. Hold on. Randy, I lost you.
Hold on. Why Why did we lose Randy?
Sorry about that. Okay, repeat what you
were saying there about Skyroof. Start
over again. Sorry about that.
>> Oh, okay. So, Skyroof is a satellite
tracking and a complete management
program. It'll do everything that you
would want to do for satellite. It'll
track the track satellites. It
interfaces to a $40 RTL SDR dongle as
well as other common radios. It'll do
tracking. You can make schedules. Um,
recently in the last couple weeks,
they've added built-in satellite
satellite telemetry and SSTV decoders.
This is a big deal.
>> Wow.
>> Um, because in the past, you've had a
tracking program and maybe a radio
control program. And now, if you want to
do the telemetry, you need, you know,
sound modems. software and different you
know telemetry decoders. You end up with
all this patchwork of this is all built
in free has water has waterfall display
maps free and it's being updated often
just like I said a couple weeks ago is
when they added the various telemetry
stuff. So
this is what it looks like. If you like
to be really nerdy and have lots of data
on your screen, this will do it.
>> Wow. and and we'll jump to a a live
version here, but I'll explain it all
then.
>> Kind of looks like sat dump to me a
little bit.
>> Sat dump. Okay. I've never used that. Um
so anyway, here's you know the waterfall
and radio control up here. This is the
this is the telemetry window and such.
And all these are movable, dockable, and
whatever you want to do with them. So
here's a telemetry burst from the QMR-
KWT satellite. Now these are kids
sensor. They're just little guys. So
there's the and here's the telemetry
decoding. It shows you here which
satellites and how many uh bursts of you
know data it's decoded. Here's the hex
dump. Here's the asky dump. This is the
decoded you know input voltage here of
7,88 you know millolts 105 bytes in the
message
>> and this was a 9600 baud rate.
>> Is this only on Windows or is it on
Linux too?
>> I think it's Windows only. Okay.
>> And this 9600 baud ICOM, the IC 9700
will not do 9600 baud. When the radio
came out, I was a big disappointment for
a lot of satellite people,
>> but I saw some some Twitter postings
from the
Japanese hamfare show and Icon had a
prototype in their booth
>> showing 9600 baud using both the
built-in sound card as well as the
accessory port on the back.
>> So, we need to talk it up with Ray. We
want this added to the radio. hopefully
it can be added to the existing radios
and not come out with a Mark 2 version
that outdates, you know, they can't be
added to ours. So, um then we'll be able
to do this within the 9700.
>> I would love that. That'd be awesome.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Um here's another decode.
Now, this is data. It's not not the slow
scan, but this is a slow scan picture
that I
>> Wow.
>> I decoded from it. And uh and it can
intermix the telemetry as well as the
slow scan. I mean, yeah, it says here,
you're ready to decode SSTV and the GMSK
9K6. So, let me just
>> Oh, we're doing live. Here we go. Hold
on.
>> So, unfortunately, when you you want to
do something live, there's nothing going
on at the moment, course.
>> Yeah. So, here's And I get a lot of
>> I don't see it. We see live demo on your
screen right now.
>> You may have to change your screen that
you're sharing. Maybe share your
desktop. Um, let me
let me cancel this.
>> The tension builds.
>> Yeah. Well, I
>> No problem.
>> Killed the app. Where is it? Here now.
Uh,
Skyroof.
>> It's already running. Oh,
>> I think you were just sharing your
slides instead of sharing Skyroof. I
think that's
>> Okay, you got it now.
>> Uh, let me see. Nope, not yet. I think
you you're sharing your slides still. I
can see your slides. I can see your
moxen.
>> Huh? That's
How about that?
>> There it is. Now we see
>> there it is.
>> Yeah.
>> Beauty.
>> So anyway, here's the the waterfall and
you can, you know, slide this around.
You can see
>> Oh, that's cool.
>> Yeah. I mean, uh
>> Oh, yes. This would help with goes with
chasing. I use uh uh geo sat uh
receiving station for goes.
>> Okay,
>> this would pick up goes and I would get
my telemetry that I want to get off the
I can get the the satellite images
without a problem. But I really want to
see the decoded telemetry.
>> Oh, okay. So, here's some some radio
control stuff here. You know, the uplink
and down link frequencies, Doppler,
>> RFAF gain, you know, where to point your
antenna.
>> You can have groups. You can program
your own groups. Put as whatever
satellites you want into whatever
satellite groups. Here's a group I have
with just three satellites in there. Uh
the one that's highlighted here appears
down here. So this is the various
transmitters. Now this one only has one,
I think,
>> but something, you know, some other
satellites will have multiple
transmitters. So you can pick which
thing you want to
>> listen to. Here's a little um upcoming
list of satellites. And this is, you
know, the little sky view of here's a
low elevation pass. Here's
>> Yeah, here's a high high elevation pass.
But this timeline down here shows you
the same thing.
>> Oh, I love I love those timelines. The
timelines are great. That's so helpful.
>> So, we have RS44 coming over at, you
know, 20 40 or so in there. Real. And
the height here is the is is the
elevation height and and the width is
the length of the pass. Yeah.
>> Right.
>> And uh that makes it kind of neat. Yeah.
>> That is cool. Okay. You've sold me,
Randy. I'm going to I'm going to
download Sky Griffin.
>> And for the low low price of free. Yeah.
Free. I'll buy him a coffee. I'll buy
him a copy
>> for free. And there's more.
>> And there's more.
>> So here's a sky view of the satellite.
So here it's going to start here and
just skim only at
>> you could smell it. That's a pass. You
could smell
>> 2.5 degrees maybe.
>> Not even probably. Well, you might have
elevation to be able to hear that. I do
not.
>> And this is a map here. So since it's
not over me at the moment. If it was
over me, it would show show my location.
And it actually draws out the satellite
in like a um a long circular path. So we
>> and the range of it when it starts at
your location and then when it ends. So
>> nice
>> really
>> that is I like it.
>> Very cool app.
>> So So let me let me quit that. And
>> does this show up? Uh no
>> I I think it goes app by app. So you
probably have to just reshare. Go ahead
and and
>> yeah let me get it started again here.
>> No problem. That's kind of how this
sharing app works is you you pick the
screen you want to share and then when
you change you just got to switch it
over.
>> It's kind of how we do it here. We're
we're putting Randy through the through
paces live and trying to juggle screen.
So, we're testing him. Oh,
>> there we go. Live demo. You got it,
Randy. You got it.
>> Earning his money tonight.
>> So,
I've seen in the ISS sat cube Facebook
group. I keep seeing these postings from
different people who have built little
Moxon antennas to use for the UHF
satellites and there's not much to it.
It's just a couple pieces of wire. This
ends up being a two element beam. Uh
I've had real good luck picking up slow
scan from the UHF satellites with just a
horizontal dipole. Just a couple pieces
of like seven or eight inch wires one of
these things stuck on the top of the
radio. So I thought, okay. Oh yeah.
>> Oh, that's cool.
>> That's really cool.
>> Let's take and build this up. So, here's
>> What did you build this out of? What is
that copper rod? What kind of copper
rod?
>> Um I use brass rod. This isn't mine.
>> Oh, okay.
>> We're going there. Okay.
>> Um so, here's, you know, you know, you
know, calculator here. You can put in
your frequency and what's wire size and
it comes up with all the various
dimensions.
And so Moxon is a simple
uh two element beam. It's got a wide
pattern, easy to build, brass rod, some
PVC tubing, some other bits and pieces.
I hope to receive receive the telemetry
from satellites using a stationary
non-tracking antenna
>> because there's a lot of satellites you
can try and get.
>> Yeah.
>> And get telemetry off and have the rotor
sit there going all day, all night long.
Uh I'd rather not be doing that. So,
let's build it and see and see how how
it works. So, the plans I found were
from Z33 Tango. If you just search for
his call box on, you'll get a whole page
of stuff. So, here's a picture of his.
You can get an idea next to the
Kangshain radio here. Um, now he and now
the driven element is the front one and
the reflector is the back. So the coax
is here and you point it this way
towards the radio towards the sky. So
here's uh here's where you feed its
direction towards the radio here and uh
here's all the dimensions. You get your
little calculator out and figure out how
much wire this all is and start putting
it together. He's done some plots here.
I go, "Wow,
>> plots."
>> I go, "Wow, just look at how smooth."
>> So that's a driven element and a and a
and a director. Huh? That's all it is.
driven element and a reflector,
>> right? The forward is the driven
>> and the reflector back.
>> Oh, I got you. Okay.
>> So, the Z the one that has the Z is the
reflector.
>> All right. So, the feed the feed goes to
the sky.
>> Yes.
>> Uh yeah, but right now it's going
horizontally. It's pointing to the
right.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Here's another
>> But if you're pointing it up that way.
>> Oh, it's
that's a whole different shot here,
Randy, that you're showing right now. I
don't know what we're modeling right
here.
>> Well, this is the pattern. So,
>> yeah, it's the pattern. All right.
>> Yeah. I will I will pull up your pants.
Yeah.
>> Can I hit the moon on that?
>> I'll let you be the judge.
>> Definitely. Definitely.
>> I can see it from here.
>> So, here I am, you know, measuring out
and putting little marks on the rods or
I'm going to bend it. And here's the
plans. And you I got my calculator out
and figured out how the length of these.
And there is bent up. You can't see the
break in there, but but there is. And uh
here I'm getting the coax ready to going
to solder on there. Okay.
>> Here I got my little you know h cut off
wheel thing. I'm cutting grooves in the
PVC pipe to set it in from the front and
then another groove down the length
there for the for the reflector to fit
in and soldering away. One of the tricky
things was to get these two wires
positioned properly.
>> Right. So, what I did, I kind of bent
them so they're a little wide and then I
used a piece of tape and I measured it
and used the tape to pull it together.
>> Oh, at the right right distance.
>> Yeah. Tension is your friend. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So, the first time I just grabbed
some Harbor Freight, some cheap heat
shrink tubing. I shrunk it on there and
the elements just slid right out. I
thought, "Oh, I think I got some of that
marine heat shrink around here with the
adhesive in there."
>> Yeah. There we go. There we go.
>> There we go. Nice long piece with the
glue top. It's solid now.
>> I bet it is. Yeah.
>> Um, so that that's so cool.
>> You know, squirting.
>> I like it.
>> Squirting the cocking in there and
filling up the end there. And
>> it's on a 10-ft hunk of pole. And that
when you use a 3/4 inch PVC tube, you
know what's really nice about that?
>> The gauge,
>> the thickness.
>> A PL 259 will slide down the center.
>> Oh yeah, there you go. Okay. Okay.
Right.
>> Perfect.
>> 10 ft. You got like a wizard staff of RF
that you've built here.
>> That's lit.
>> So, here's another shot of it done. You
know, the cocking is kind of messy, but
here it is. It's up in the sky out here.
This is my um this is my ADSB, my 1080.
>> There you go.
>> Mezz.
>> I see the spiders have adopted it.
That's great.
>> Oh, yeah. Well,
>> I love it. That's right.
>> Yeah. So, I got this put up about 10
minutes before a pass at 12:05 today,
and I actually got it cabled in, a wire
pushed through the house, and I actually
decoded a couple telemetry packets. Is
it
>> all right?
>> Is it as good as the tracking antenna?
No. But there's no moving parts either.
>> Right. Yes.
>> Right.
>> And it's fairly wide, so pointing it
vertically like that is still probably
going to be effective for even some low
passes,
>> right? Yeah. And it and in the uh sky
roof you can set set the minimum
elevation like at 0 degrees 10 degrees
20. So for something like this just set
it for 20. And uh and you can also set
it so um when there's multiple
satellites coming over together
>> you can give priority to the highest
elevation ones.
>> Oh.
>> So if you want
>> Oh. Oh god. You're just you I love this
app. I love this app.
>> And that's a whole lot easier to build
than an egg beater, huh?
>> Oh yeah. With phasing lines and stuff.
Oh yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And the shape of the antenna. Yeah.
>> Exactly. That's that's great.
>> Yeah. I've always want to kind of build
those. But you look at the plans, you
kind of look at his drawings, you know,
which which is in out. And
>> since you're on this page, really quick,
we got a question from Jody. Says, uh,
what what do you think the estimates are
on the dB gain there, Randy? Is it 10 uh
10 dB or less? What do you think?
>> Uh, I think he had
>> two elements got to be like six dB. Um I
think it's like two over two dB and over
a dipole maybe IB. Yeah. One of his
other
>> really only double I guess. Uh
>> yeah cuz it's
>> Yeah,
>> but
>> maybe that's a loss. Uh I don't know. I
don't know when you go higher in
frequency what happens if you're like a
gaggy or a a hex beam will get you about
6 dB
>> on HF.
>> Okay.
>> Interesting.
>> So
>> that's cool. Thank you, Eric, too, for
the gifted uh subs there. You got 10
free gifted memberships. Thank you for
doing that. Very nice of you.
>> Appreciate that. All right. Oh, look at
this, Randy. Big achievement.
>> And the big achievement
>> last month was 20 years on YouTube and I
posted a video kind of going through
>> through my history of all this. And uh
>> that's a great video, too. I thoroughly
enjoyed watching.
>> Good job.
>> Great job. Thanks everybody, you know,
for the years they've been watching and
supportive and got to meet a lot of
great people. You know, there's a bunch
of them on this show and uh hanging out
with Gordo and Bob over the years and
just yeah, you know, viewers coming up
at the Hamfest, you know, early on, you
know, back 19 years ago, every time you
go to Hamfest, it's constantly being
mobbed and stopped.
It's not so much anymore because there's
so many YouTube ham radio people out out
there. So,
>> you're like the first YouTube ham radio
show, Randy. You definitely are.
>> Well, George Thomas and those guys were
on a little bit earlier and they were on
before
>> uh before YouTube, I believe you had to
go to to their page and actually
download the video file.
>> Yeah.
>> So, yeah. Yeah.
Wow.
>> And the quality over the years.
>> I just was at I just was at a Target and
I saw they brought back those little
handheld cameras. Do you remember the
flip cams, Randy? Flip where you'd have
the little USB thing. You'd pull it down
and it' shoot out the side and it would
like 720p only. That's what I started
out doing YouTube on like about 20 years
ago as well. And I was like, "Oh my god,
this is the best thing ever. I can carry
this with me everywhere." and I could
get 16 minutes of recording in one in
one bo in one little box. And it was
like, "Oh, this is all I'd ever need."
>> And something else I've been playing
with a little bit is a thing called, oh,
was it QSO1?
>> Okay, QSO1.
>> And this is a Android app.
>> Okay,
>> there may be a iPhone version now, but I
have a little cheap Android tablet here.
So, this What happened here? Let me go
to networks. This basically does all the
digital voice networks except
>> ESAR. It's got Allstar FM.
>> Whoa.
>> Free. And I've I fired, you know, I
fired this up maybe two weeks ago and it
was really kind of buggy. I could get in
this some Echolink stations and not
others. I could, you know, hear some uh
some DMR talk groups, others I couldn't
connect to. And um when you register the
program, of course, he gets your email.
And I've gotten couple emails from them
with all their updates. And he's just
had this huge one where he's fixed a lot
of these problems. And now I can get to
the um you know, the Echo Stars that I
couldn't and I can now get to the DMR
talk group that I couldn't get before.
So
>> So anyway, QSO1.
>> Nice.
>> I got a cheap Android tablet. I'm gonna
put that on. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna try
that. Very good.
All right. Well, we are rounding out the
show with Don coming to him live for the
big story of the
>> Yeah, there's a lot of solar stuff going
on right now and we have got Dr. T right
after we tell you about the news of the
week from Amateur Radio News Line
from Amateur Radio News report number
2549.
This is Ham Nation headlines for
Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. Our top
story takes us to the UK where in an
unprecedented move for the World Radio
Sport Team Championship, the judges of
the prestigious event have overturned
this year's results. The judges said
they discovered fraudulent means,
including the use of pirate stations
were used to boost some scores,
including those of the winning team.
Dave Lee, M9TB, has that story.
Acting on what it called extraordinary
information from members of the public
after the awards ceremony for WRTC 2026
in July. Organizers have thrown out some
of the competition scores which they
believe were achieved as the result of
an elaborate fraudulent strategy. The
strategy made use of bogus multiplier
stations and introduced frequency
handoffs and release of team identity,
all prohibited practices. Most prominent
were the declared victories of the top
team MB2M and team MB2A which the
committee said were achieved in
violation of competition rules. The
organizers said that the scheme included
the use of pirate stations posing as
multiplier producing stations which
favored contacts with those two
stations. Other teams were disqualified
after the probe also unearthed the
frequency handoffs and release of team
identity. Organizers said they were
making the announcement on September the
1st with sadness and disappointment.
They added that quote, "WRTC has strived
to be a competition where the outcome is
based on the competitor's performance
and is not a function of off-site
helpers assisting their competitor
friends." End quote. This is Dave Lee,
M9 TLB.
>> Sometimes when it's radio to the rescue,
it's not always the kind of radio we're
used to finding in a typical shack. As
we hear from Kent Peterson, KC0 DGY.
Low-frequency radio waves with the
ability to penetrate rock are being
credited in a dramatic rescue of an
explorer who is trapped for 9 hours in a
cave in Alberta, Canada in August. The
solution uses QDXM radios from QRP Labs.
Volunteers with the Alberta British
Columbia Cave Rescue, part of Search and
Rescue Alberta, have been working with
these digital radios for their
lightweight since 2003. Christian
Center, Alberta coordinator for the
rescue team, said the radio system works
underground and does not need a line of
sight to the sky as cell phones and GPS
do. The system was deployed in the
August 15th rescue for the first time,
enabling team members who entered the
cave on Grotto Mountain to communicate
text messages to their colleagues. They
gave progress reports and made requests
for any supplies they needed. The
trapped person, who has not been
identified in any media reports, had
become stuck in a tight point inside of
what's known as the rat's nest cave.
That section of the limestone cave is
vertical and pitches downward. It was
midnight when the man was freed. The
rescue agency issued a statement
afterward praising the technology and
the team. This is Kent Peterson, KC0
DGY.
>> If you've been waiting for the D
expedition to to Tokolu in November,
you're going to be waiting a bit longer.
Jim Mee ZL2BHF shares the team's latest
announcement.
>> Only weeks after announcing that they
were bringing a team of operators to
tool for a de expedition in November,
organizers have announced the trip to
the New Zealand island territory has
been postponed for a year. The ZK3 ZLD
expedition would have been the first
tool since the ZK3A activation in 2019.
Organizers said that the canceled plans
were the results of an administrative
error that caused the operators to lose
their bookings for the return trip by
ferry. The team issued a statement
saying, quote, "With no other reasonably
priced transportation alternative, the
project must be rescheduled." End quote.
The Perseverance DX Group and Western
Washington DX Club will coordinate their
new plans with the administration on the
island. Donors can request refunds of
their contributions or they will be held
in escrow. This is Jim Mechan ZL2BHF.
>> And that's all from the Amateur Radio
News Line, your independent source for
amateur radio news since 1976 at
arnewsline.org
with Dave Lee, M9TLB, Kent Peterson,
KC0DY, Jim Mechan, ZL2BHF,
Karen Eve Murray, KD2 GU at the news
desk in New York and our news team
across the globe. I'm Don Wellbanks,
AE5DW
73. We'll see you next time here on Ham
Nation. Now, here's the solar update
from Dr. Tamoth Scove, WX6SWW.
>> We have a whole flock of solar storms
that are starting to hit Earth along
with some fast solar wind, a radiation
storm dies down, and more flare
activity, especially with new regions
about to rotate into Earth view. Those
stories and more are in the news this
week.
Space weather this week picks up in a
big way as we take a look at our
Earth-facing disc. Man, do we have a lot
of activity. You can see me capturing
this big launch off of the east limb.
We've also had activity off of the west
limb as well. And in fact, there's been
so much activity and so many gorgeous
eye candy solar storm launches that if I
tried to go over all of them, we would
be here all day. Look at all these
things popping up. My goodness, all of
them deserve some beautiful attention.
Look at the sun and 304 angstroms over
the last that's the red sun over the
last maybe three or four days and you
will just catch a ton of these gorgeous
eruptions. I'm only going to focus on a
couple of them. But I'm also going to
focus on something that a lot of us has
probably not been paying much attention
to and that is this coronal hole right
here. You can't really see it all that
well, but you kind of see a little bit
of a dark thing. You'll see the deep
part of it as I switch the composite
here to kind of light up the coronal
hole a little bit. Here we go. You can
see this dark region right in here. This
coronal hole is actually connected a
little bit to the southern polar coronal
hole, which means it can probably give
us a bit more oomph. And as I take a
look at it with the magnetic field
highlighted, you can see all of the
field lines that are blue. Those are
closed regions. That's not where the
fast wind necessarily is coming from.
But look at some of the yellow lines.
That's more where the fast these are
open field lines. This is where a lot
more of the fast solar wind is being
guided. You can see one that's going way
off to the west. You can see another
one's curving way off to the east. You
can even some see some that are curving
to the south. So that's telling us that
this thing is kind of opening up like a
big flower. And the the extent and the
influence of this coronal hole with that
fast wind is going to be a bit stronger
than average. As we take a look at our
Wang Sheille RG model, you can see this
coronal hole right here. In fact, right
around in the in the deepest part of it,
it looks like we have solar wind that
could be about 600 kilometers a second.
Maybe not quite that fast, but it'll be
very interesting to see that. And this
thing is connected really down to this
southern polar hole. This is why I was
calling it maybe it's going to get a bit
more bang for its buck. So, we'll be
paying attention to that even though we
do have a ton of solar storms that are
kind of taking the center stage here.
So, now let's talk about some of those
solar storms. As we take a look at our
our disc here, I want you to keep your
eye on this region right here. Believe
it or not, this is old region 4520 and
it had actually submerged below the
surface and stopped even having a
designation starting around September
3rd or 4th. And still even under the
surface there was still a lot of
activity going on on the 5th about
midday. Boom. Right there. You can see
it right there like that. Doesn't look
all that exciting. But as we flip, let
me turn to the other side here. As we
take a bigger view of the sun, you can
see this region. Watch this blast wave.
It's just magnificent. But the thing
didn't, if I back up just a smidge,
thing did not, the blast wave did not
come towards center disc. It kind of has
to come to center disc for us to know
that we're actually going to get hit by
these big solar storms. We might get a
little bit from the shock and the wake,
which is what I think is hitting Earth
right now. We're seeing a little bit of
that. It's giving us some aurora at high
latitudes, but it hasn't been all that
big of a show. That's okay. We got a lot
more coming. So, as I turn around here
and show you the coronagraph imagery.
Now, we did have a solar storm launched
to the east of Earth, but we've been
having those off and on. It's kind of
contributed to this big wave of solar
storms that hitting are hitting now. But
right after that, you can see boom,
right there. There's the big solar storm
that is going to the west of Earth. This
thing is not going to hit Earth,
although we are feeling a little bit of
wake from it right now. It has been
giving us some aurora at high latitudes,
but nothing down at mid latitudes yet.
But this solar storm is actually strong
enough that it actually launched a
radiation storm and that is causing uh
you know some decent radio propagation
issues especially at high latitudes with
the polar cap absorption event.
Thankfully it's dying down now but we'll
talk more about that when I get to the
geocron current conditions. Meanwhile,
shortly after this we actually had
region 4524 get in the fray. You can see
it right boom right there. There's a
solar storm launch. And as we pull up in
coronagraphs, you can see it. There's
the big one launching there, but then
you also see this structure here. And
you even something that looks like it's
kind of in between. So, we're definitely
going to get our first real direct
impact from a solar storm from this
particular event. That's likely going to
be hitting us sometime on the ETH. And
we'll talk about that more shortly. But
believe it or not, this region is not
done. In fact, just shortly thereafter,
it launched another one. And so why is
this region when we actually look at it,
why is it so active? Because it really
didn't launch very large rad uh solar
flares, it's not been doing that much
and it doesn't really look all that
impressive. So when I actually lay it
out here on a logarithmic scale, it's
got it I'm laughing because uh the the
imagery if you've looked at SUV imagery
right recently, SUV has been kind of
shifted offaxis to get a better view of
the east limb midca but reres havoc with
some of our software because when we try
to actually do these types of
projections, it's all the center is not
right. So it causes everything to be
kind of sloped like this. But
nonetheless, it's still instructive
because it's showing you this is so this
is the east limb of the sun. Try to give
you a better idea of what's going on
here. This is the east limb of the sun.
You've got all these act active regions
here. This is region right here. This is
region 4524. And the reason why I'm
showing you this is because as I play it
just a little bit, you can actually see
a little bit of what's going on with it
being connected with all these little
filaments. And you can just see all this
stuff in here. Look at these. And then
look at these core filaments all in
here. See how intense this looks? This
thing has just been firing and firing
and it's so it's not the actual sunspot
that is causing it to be exciting. It's
actually all the little core filaments.
And this is why core filaments you
really have to pay attention to them up
here in this inset as I go along. You'll
see these core filaments here and in
here. This is that active region. So
I'll kind of I'll kind of show you right
here. This one here as I map it this
way. That is this core filament that
goes up and over. And then this core
filament up here. believe it or not. And
up in here is this one. Okay, so
hopefully that orients you. This is the
east limb of the sun. This is active
region 4524. And as I back off, just
look at this thing. Notice this thing
here is just coiling. It's like winding
up. And on top of this, I've got
overlaid the sunspot, the actual white
light sunspot in a false color. So you
can actually see the rotation as this
thing is just spinning up almost like a
like a big storm storm system or
hurricane on the sun. And it just winds
up these core filaments so much that
they begin to really fire. And that that
is super important because it lets us
know that this region despite all
appearances with the sunspot being very
very simplistic, despite all
appearances, this thing is likely going
to be launching more solar storms as
time goes on. And so this region, expect
to see more stuff even if it's not super
flare active. So as we continue, we've
got one more solar storm. This thing
launched right here on the six boom
right there. That's a new one. We even
have one more on the 7th that's been
fired. That one's likely going to go
further north of us. But in this
particular one, uh we actually do have
coronagraph imagery. You can see it
here. And it doesn't really look like
much, but you can see definitely a small
kind of faint halo. Not sure if this is
going to be a big strong storm, but it's
one more to add to the fray. So, we have
about anywhere between four to six
partially earthdirected solar storms
that we'll be having to talk about and
we'll talk about that pretty soon. And
now stepping outside to take a look at
our current conditions with our global
geocron map. We've been having a lot of
solar flares. They've not been super big
like you can see here. This one has only
been getting us up to about 15 to 20 uh
meghertz and degradation because these
flares have really been lowle like you
know R1 level radio blackouts for the
most part. But boy did we get walloped
by that one on the 5th. As you can see
here, boom, right there, you can see
very quickly after that, you see this
radiation storm begin to build. And as
you take a look at on the day side, you
can take a look at the amateur radio
contacts. Watch this. If I kind of back
this up here, you can see all of this
very intense uh radio communication
contacts going here. Soon as that that
radiation storm, look at that. Look how
much you see how much that thing
diminished. That is the polar cap
absorption event happening in the north
pole. That is due to all of this. It's
very difficult to have any HF and even
VHF radio communications gets a bit
noisy up in the high latitudes when we
have these big uh radiation storms. So
people in the north are dealing with it
for the most part uh worse than the
southern hemisphere because of the fact
that it's the northern hemisphere
summer. They see the sun a lot more than
the southern hemisphere does. And that
then causes roti. These are the
turbulence zones for GPS and GNSS. that
causes roti to really go kind of crazy.
As you can see here, there's got a lot
of roti issues and that's going to
continue here over this next week.
Things might be calming down just a
little bit until these solar storms
really start ramping up and that will
likely increase roti once again. So,
amateur radio operators and emergency
responders expect to be dealing with
this. The radiation storm is beginning
to die down now. We're only in enhanced
conditions right now. As you can see, it
blinks off on the DRAP model. So, we're
going to be dealing with that here again
over the next maybe 24 hours before
things go completely back to baseline.
But by then, we're going to be having a
lot more issues with Aurora uh once
again causing the up the high latitudes
to get a bit noisy. So, we're just going
to have to hunker down and deal with it.
Might get to calm down after about the
11th, but yeah, likely it's going to be
a bit dicey for a while. Uh solar flare
and dayside radio blackout outlook over
the coming week. Well, we're sitting at
about 110 for solar flux and it's likely
going to stay like that for a few more
days. Likely going to maybe grow even
just a little bit over the next few
days. We're sitting only at minor noise
on the dayside radio bands between 15 to
20% for MClass flares. That might grow
as we move into the into Friday and in
the weekend. We expect to see maybe a
bit more for radio blackouts, but we're
definitely not expecting to see X-class
flares and R3 level radio blackouts.
It's probably not going to happen. So,
amateur radio operators and emergency
responders, the bands aren't too bad,
but expect those periodic radio
blackouts to be more of an nuisance than
anything, but we could get more
radiation storms. And if so, expect that
high latitudes, especially in the
northern hemisphere, could get the space
weather this week is getting very
exciting. We already have the first bit
of impact from that wave of solar storms
that are hitting Earth along with some
fast solar wind. Aurora photographers at
high latitudes, you're already getting
some decent shows. As long as the sun
isn't too bright for you, you've got a
decently um dark moon, so that should
help with aurora viewing. Aurora
photographers at mid- latitudes, well,
you know, it's going to be a little bit
of catches catch can, but you're going
to get likely a peak on the 8th and
possibly in through the 9th and then
we're going to get shows kind of
sporadically in through the maybe the
11th and 12th before things calm down
with the promise of more because the uh
regions on the sun aren't done firing
earth directed solar storms yet. They're
still going through the Earth strike
zone. So, keep your batteries charged
because it could be a really fun week.
Now, amateur radio operators and
emergency responders, well, the noise on
the dayside radio bands isn't too bad.
We're sitting with, you know, mild noise
on the dayside bands, but we do still
have a chance of low-level R1 to R2
level radio blackouts and that's likely
going to continue this week. We might
even see that risk rise over the weekend
as new regions rotate into Earth view.
to just kind of hunker in down and stay,
you know, vigilant knowing that you're
going to have a little bit of trouble
both on the day side and the night side
because of those solar storms hitting.
Now, you GPS users, well, you're going
to have to deal with that solar storms
hitting on the night side of Earth and
these mild radio blackouts on the day
side. So, your GPS reception might be a
little bit wonky, but as long as you
stay away from aurora, away from the
dawn terminators, and stay vigilant,
your GPS reception should be pretty
decent. I'm Tam of the Scope, the space
weather woman. Thank you for watching.
>> How's that for a solar update?
>> Tinfoil out.
>> That is the edited version of a 24minute
video on her on her YouTube channel.
>> Her visuals have gone to such a high
level.
>> So good.
>> Like so good.
>> Jod's in the chat. The lighting, the
color, not just the visuals, everything
has just gone up crazy. back to when
you're right when we first brought her
on. Yeah. It's it's it's uh
>> that shot where the sun is like a a
valley.
>> I know. I know.
>> It's very uncomfy. I'm very
uncomfortable watching that. Like I feel
like I'm going to get sucked right into
the
>> Yeah. Just dive right into
it. Her her video content just keeps
getting better and better and better.
>> Yeah.
>> She is such a good She is such a good
teacher. She is to solar weather what
Gordon West is amateur radio. I'm
telling you.
>> For sure.
>> Yeah. One of my favorite interviews I've
ever done on my channel. One of my
favorite interviews. No question is Dr.
T. She is absolutely phenomenal.
>> She is amazing. So there you go. There's
your solar updates. Check her out.
Spaceweatherwoman.com is her website.
>> Great job.
>> And oh, I didn't do anything. I just cut
it together. And um, of course,
>> Tamith Scove on X and Tamoth Scove in
the on the on the YouTube. Yeah, it's a
24 minute video that I that I that I cut
down. So pretty. Great job. Hey, I got a
got a new bit of kit um at the uh but I
was looking for one of these at the
Huntsville Hamfest. I could only get a
used one at Huntsville if they even had
them. But
>> okay,
>> got my new Open Spot 4 Pro.
>> There you go.
>> How quickly did you get that up and
running? I think I got that thing going
in like less than 10 minutes. It's so
easy about
>> Yeah.
>> So easy.
>> Yeah. So, I'm going to check into the uh
into the Ham Nation net. Anyone remember
this guy here?
>> Yeah.
the the DV D or the DVAP. I've got the
blue DVAP, too. Or DV dongle. I've got
both of those around here somewhere. I'd
forgotten I had this one.
>> I literally have mine sitting right
here. So, there you go.
>> Twinsies. We got twinsies.
>> Twinsies.
>> Twinkies.
>> Yay.
>> All right. Cool. Cool.
>> I read the rep and I read the report
from the WRTC
committee where they went through and
and analyzed all these logs. the extent
and their research is just amazing. Of
course, you know, there's 50 stations
for the WRTC. So, they all have their
logs sent in. Every one of those
stations,
>> sorry. Can you give an elevator speech
on explaining the background here?
Because I think a lot of people are
like, I don't understand. It's some
other station. Like, who cares? What are
they doing? So, what what is this,
Randy? I'm throwing to you. Explain.
Give it give it to us with a hot five
minute here.
>> Okay. This is the Olympics of of ham
radio contesting. This is where teams of
two people have been selected from being
top contesters from all around the
world. And there's youth categories and
other teams that are put together. And
it's
>> basically the ham radio Olympics.
>> Yeah. The ham radio Olympics. It's
hosted every four years. It was in
England this year. It was in Italy four
years ago.
>> It's been in Seattle. I think it's been
in Boston and stuff.
um the host country or the host club
builds 50 stations. So they they spend
years looking at the sites because they
want to make them as equal as possible.
And so they find these locations, spread
the stations out. They go out and
operate contests there and make sure one
isn't a lot better than the other. If
one's a a dud, they you know, they won't
use it. Then they um build the station.
They all have the same height tower, the
same tower, the same beam, the same wire
antennas. Um,
the contest people bring their own
radios. So there's I think the majority
of them were aircraft.
>> Mo Yeah, most of them are aircraft.
>> Yeah. Well, first of all, they're real
light. over shipping. And
>> and so the teams stick their own radios
and uh
>> the call signs for the teams are kept
basically secret until just before the
thing starts and you know they're not
supposed to tell the world that you know
I'm operating as whatever you know the
call sign.
>> Oh because they're specialty call signs.
>> They're specialty call signs. There's a
whole series of them. Yeah. And um
>> like M0, M. Yeah. It just goes like
that. Yeah.
>> And um there's a referee at each station
and he listens and watches what these
guys are doing. Everything is audio
recorded at the station. The whole I
don't know is it 24 or 48 hours,
whatever the length is. And then they uh
you know tally up the logs. They have a
big banquet and they have the podium for
the, you know, gold and silver and
bronze and all that type of stuff and
uh,
>> you know, they give the awards.
>> Well,
they when they start looking at the
logs, prefixes count as multipliers. If
you get a a a new prefix, that's another
multiplier. And contesters are always
digging for multipliers because they
multiply your score.
>> Well, they found out that several of
these stations
had worked these stations as as new
multipliers, but most stations did not.
So, why are some stations working these
guys and others aren't?
>> Um,
is that just by luck or whatever? So,
one of the things they've been able to
do is, of course, they have the 50 logs
of all the stations there. After the
contest is over, they collect, I think,
all the contest logs that have been sent
in. you know, that's hundreds or
thousands of contact logs. So now they
can start searching for these
>> pirate stations or whatever or ones
that, you know, haven't been on in 20
years or the guy had passed.
>> So these were not real call signs.
>> Oh, so they were like
>> some were, I think, but they weren't
real call signs on the air by the real
station.
>> So it's like one high power station was
spoofing and bootlegging other call
signs.
Oh,
>> and the other thing and the other thing
they're able to do is that they record
the HF spectrum.
>> Think about that.
>> So now they can go back and play 20 m at
that time slot and see if that station
actually did work the pirate
>> or the bogus station or not.
>> That's cool.
>> So
>> you know who we should have on?
>> We should have on um Charlie Wooten
NF4A. He has been a judge and a at at
that
>> at the RTC at final. We should have him
on. I'll I'll see about getting him on.
>> There you go. Okay.
>> So, uh and so the technology went
through and basically they um they
disqualified four stations. Well, it was
stations number one, two, and three,
maybe even four, the fourth one. So,
that rearranged the whole
>> whole thing. And uh they found some of
these other strange things in some other
people's logs, but it wasn't enough to
to really disqualify them, I guess, and
to really change their change their
ranking. But doing this, they kind of
discovered some same patterns from back
in Italy.
>> Oh.
>> Oh. Oh. And and another thing thing that
happened is that is that before the
contest there'd be people on a frequency
making a lot of contacts. Then when the
zero hour is that station would drop off
and then the real contest station would
have that clear frequency spot.
>> Oh.
>> Oh. So
>> somebody was like holding and protecting
a frequency for him. So they have to
hunt for something when the clock turned
zero.
This is like NASCAR.
>> This is crazy, Randy. This is wild. Is
there a write up for this? Where did you
get all this info?
>> You go to the WRTC
website and look for the the papers.
Sure enough, it's long. There's a lot of
reading and
>> yeah, it's quite interesting. And
there's a bunch of
>> and there's a bunch of you YouTubers who
have dug through this stuff as well. So,
it's
>> that's amazing.
>> Well, thank you for explaining that. I
appreciate it. Um, okay. We are
definitely at the end of time here.
We've we've gone over. So hopefully you
all had a a good time with us this
evening. We appreciate you hanging out
with us. Have a great rest of your week.
Get out and play a little ham radio in
the field. Taking some of the tips from
Gordo from his short shots. Go mobile.
You should go out to one of your local
podas and get on the air.
>> Absolutely.
>> Uh still try even though what you know
Dr. T says still get on the air.
>> Sure.
>> Yes. And I I should mention the net
since Amanda is not here. Tom Wy 7KY on
40 m 7.192.
And it sounds like our own Dawn will be
possibly on the DAR 14 Charlie
reflector. So you can get on with him
here as he checks into the net. All
right, 73 from us here on Ham Nation.
Thanks everybody for watching and we'll
talk to you again in two weeks.
>> Good night all.
Scout 73.