Latest / Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations / Hams On the Air: Episode 1 – Every Ham Has a Story

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Hams On the Air: Episode 1 – Every Ham Has a Story · Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations

0:14
James Mills, K8JKU: All right, hi everyone.
0:15
James Mills, K8JKU: Welcome to Episode 1 of the Everyday Ham Podcast.
0:18
James Mills, K8JKU: This is a new thing we're going to try, so bear with us as we try to get in the swing of things here over the next few episodes.
0:23
James Mills, K8JKU: But we'll kick it off with some introductions.
0:26
James Mills, K8JKU: And, jim, why don't you go first?
0:28
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Okay, Sounds good.
0:29
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, we have three of us here, so let's get that clear right out of the book.
0:34
Jim Davis, N8JRD: My name is Jim Jim Davis and my call sign is November 8,.
0:38
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Juliet Romeo Delta.
0:45
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I work out of South Lyon, Michigan, and got involved here in the local club just about six months ago, so fairly new or reintroduced to the hobby.
0:50
Jim Davis, N8JRD: In just the last six months Came in blazing, of course, and have gotten caught the fire, if you will have tons of new equipment.
1:01
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Have been learning as I go but, excitedly enough, had upgraded from technician to general.
1:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So I am not an extra yet, but we might talk a little bit about what our goals are for this year, and that might be one of them.
1:18
James Mills, K8JKU: And a proud legacy, ham as well.
1:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's right.
1:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, james makes a good point.
1:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And my family is all amateurs my dad, my mother and my brother just four of us in the family all of us were amateurs.
1:35
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I got my license originally in 2002.
1:36
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So I was just about out of high school at that point.
1:38
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I went and took my technician test.
1:41
Jim Davis, N8JRD: This was after they added, or removed rather, the requirement for CW so I got away pretty easy, didn't have to learn any sort of code and studied up out of a Radio Shack fundamentals book that Dad got us from the local Radio Shack in town After quite a bit of reading.
2:00
Jim Davis, N8JRD: This was before the banks were readily available for you to just review the banks of questions.
2:04
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We did go take the test and I did pretty well on it.
2:07
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I don't remember what the actual score it was, but passed it without too much trouble.
2:11
Jim Davis, N8JRD: My brother and I tested on the same day and my original call sign was Kilo Charlie 8, tango Gulf Bravo and he was Tango Gulf Charlie.
2:19
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So we got subsequent call signs, my brother and I.
2:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So that was kind of neat.
2:22
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Um, but uh, we use those, uh, on the farm.
2:25
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We lived on 80 acres for well as long as I can recall, up in Gaylord there and uh, it was, uh, it was useful just for, um, you know, utility around the farm, calling from the house when dinner was ready, calling to come back up to get something that you missed, et cetera, et cetera.
2:40
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So that's kind of the starting point anyway.
2:44
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But excited to be with you guys, because with me a couple of folks that have a wealth of knowledge and have been involved in much more depth for longer I wouldn't be too sure of that one.
2:57
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We'll send it over to Rory.
2:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Go ahead, Rory.
3:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Well, that was.
3:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I did not grow up on a farm, so I don't my.
3:03
Rory Locke, W8KRX: My story is not that exciting.
3:04
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I grew up all of three miles from where I live now, here in in just outside of downtown South Lyon, michigan, not too far from Jim we uh we met at all of us met at our local club, which was something we all had in common, which is a good thing, but I was originally licensed probably just a couple months before Jim, as my original call was Kilo Charlie 8, sierra Zulu Romeo, which came just before the tease.
3:31
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So I bet six months or so I don't remember what month, I want to say February of 2002, I got licensed and I was still in high school.
3:40
Rory Locke, W8KRX: The current call, though, whiskey 8, kilo, november X-Ray, I took a couple years ago when I finally passed the general.
3:48
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So I had a long up and down.
3:50
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have continued to have a long up and down career with amateur radio, licensed in 2002, of course, played around with it for several years, got busy with college and work and life and always had a radio around, but never not always on, always listening, always lurking, but never super active.
4:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So somewhere in the last five or so years I started getting active again and upgraded to general and that's when I took the new call, sign on Again, had a little bit of a career change, probably four years ago, and got busy with that.
4:27
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Suddenly someone at work decided that he wanted a ham radio license and he saw these couple antennas on my car so he started asking questions.
4:34
Rory Locke, W8KRX: He's the one who knew I lived in south lion and said well, do you, do you belong to that club?
4:39
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And and at that time that answer was no, I I wasn't.
4:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It hadn't been a club member for probably 10 years and uh, and suddenly I got uh very interested in helping him study for technician at work and and get his, his mobile and house set up together and suddenly I became super radioactive again.
5:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So you know, it's been a good journey.
5:04
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I've met a lot of good people along the way, people that I still know, people that I've met in other parts of the country, whether it's from using the digital mode, such as DSTAR or AllSTAR, and just travels along the way, always having the handheld with me.
5:19
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's been fun meeting people everywhere.
5:21
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So that's a bit of my story.
5:23
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'm sure there's more, but I'll remember more later.
5:26
James Mills, K8JKU: I was going to say I don't think I have that exciting with introductions, the two of you.
5:30
James Mills, K8JKU: So I'm James Mills, k8jku uh, the most recent licensed ham of the bunch, actually, so I would consider myself a COVID ham.
5:39
James Mills, K8JKU: So I was licensed, with my technician, in 2021.
5:43
James Mills, K8JKU: I started studying in 2020 because, like a lot of people at that time, I had some available space to occupy myself, got my general and extra in the same year, so 2023.
5:56
James Mills, K8JKU: So my ADD kicked in.
5:57
James Mills, K8JKU: I just kept going and there I was, so I'm definitely more of a newer ham.
6:03
James Mills, K8JKU: My grandpa would always listen to CB radios and was always fascinated with scanners and things of that nature, so I always wanted to learn more about ham radio.
6:13
James Mills, K8JKU: So it wasn't until again I don't remember why I even saw something or thought of amateur radio.
6:19
James Mills, K8JKU: Um, but I did, and I just started watching some YouTube videos and studying up and using all the online tools I could at that time.
6:26
James Mills, K8JKU: And and here I am, um, so I I'd say the thing I'm most interested in, uh is, I doubt technical background by profession, but I love coding, I love electronics, always have A lot of consumer electronics, of course, as a lot of people, and I'm just excited about things like Parks on the Air and going out and poding, and the club we're in is actually, I would say, a pretty active poda club as well.
6:51
James Mills, K8JKU: So getting to spend time with you guys and the other members out in Mountain Parks has been pretty fantastic and I just love it.
6:58
James Mills, K8JKU: You guys and the other members out in Mountain Parks has been pretty fantastic and I just love it.
7:01
James Mills, K8JKU: I love getting out and operating and learning new things about radios and antenna designs and everything that comes with it.
7:04
James Mills, K8JKU: So I would say that is a little bit about me and again, shortest introduction of all three.
7:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Well, it's interesting that you're the newest ham, but you're also the most accomplished by way of licensed class.
7:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: James is the only extra among the three of us.
7:19
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's all about time he enjoys having those extra few, few frequencies to use because, uh, you know, more than more than once the ham alerts popped up with Kate JKU somewhere that I can't go hunt him.
7:30
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So he does.
7:31
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I know.
7:32
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I know James enjoys having those, those little yeah.
7:35
James Mills, K8JKU: I just like to flaunt my extra privileges.
7:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You know a little bit, get spotted down in the extra class area.
7:41
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So everybody knows.
7:43
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I did leave something out of my introduction.
7:47
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You made me think when you were talking about CB and scanner.
7:49
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's kind of where I started.
7:50
Rory Locke, W8KRX: When I was a kid we had a CB in the minivan when we'd go up north and we would hang out on Channel 19 for the drive up 75 up to the little family place up in Bel Air and we would use a couple handheld CBs up there for coordination in and around the 10 acres.
8:10
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But then I got involved having a scanner at some point, because my grandpa always had one and at some point I found these frequencies with a bunch of old dudes and weird guys that would go on and on about things at all hours and keep in mind this was the 90s, so repeaters were a lot more active now.
8:29
Rory Locke, W8KRX: They would be active from 5 in the morning until 10 at night and sometimes even later, and my dad would listen.
8:37
Rory Locke, W8KRX: He's like what's all these people talking?
8:39
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And he said, um, you know.
8:41
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So he encouraged me.
8:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Even though he wasn't a ham, he knew what ham radio was, um, and he encouraged me to get licensed.
8:47
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So that's a chunk of my story I forgot.
8:49
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'm glad you mentioned scanners and cbs.
8:51
James Mills, K8JKU: Uh, james, because it's where we got comfortable with the uh static sound.
8:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So it doesn't drive us nuts, is that scanner?
8:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I can hear it all the time and it doesn't bother me.
9:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't have patience.
9:03
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You guys know that.
9:07
James Mills, K8JKU: That is true.
9:07
James Mills, K8JKU: Maybe one transition before we get started into the main topic, which is not going to be a—it's a little bit of a softball of a topic to start it is episode one after all but maybe we talk a little bit about the mission of this podcast.
9:20
James Mills, K8JKU: What are we trying to accomplish and what's the overall themes?
9:23
James Mills, K8JKU: And I think the name Everyday Ham sort of alludes to what we're trying to go for here a little bit.
9:29
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But yeah, I agree with you.
9:31
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We went through a lot of names.
9:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We used AI, we tried to use AI.
9:35
Jim Davis, N8JRD: A lot of names we used AI, we tried to use AI.
9:36
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It made some suggestions.
9:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Some were hilarious the Signal Struggle that was out there.
9:41
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There were a couple other that were pretty funny, but no, I think the title should give you a pretty good idea of where we're headed here.
9:49
Jim Davis, N8JRD: This is not supposed to be a pretentious conversation necessarily.
9:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's intended, I think, to be an approachable discussion that talks about the current topics that are relevant to folks that are operating radio, and radio has changed a lot, I think, in many exciting ways in the last couple of years, even, obviously, I got back into it in just the last six months.
10:10
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But to see, you know, the, the POTA parks on on the Air becomes such a popular radio sport, if you want to call it that, to see contesting pick back up and have folks that are just far more in tune with what is happening on the radio, it seems like there's a kind of a burgeoning interest in this particular hobby again, with a more diverse crew than perhaps there were in the past, right, a more diverse range of ages and folks that are interested.
10:41
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So that's my feel on it is that this should be something that you maybe are hearing, something that you hadn't seen already, and we're kind of breaking down that topic and exploring it a little bit further.
10:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Maybe it'll get you thinking about that idea too.
10:56
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So that's my idea for what we might do here.
10:59
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You guys are here too, though.
11:01
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So what do you think?
11:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think a lot of it too is something James mentioned in his introduction is that he doesn't work professionally in a technical background.
11:08
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't either, Jim, I guess.
11:11
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Suppose in a way you do, but not super electronics radio background.
11:16
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You work in tech, 're not?
11:17
James Mills, K8JKU: we're not electronics engineers or electrical engineers or radio engineers, and right the conversation.
11:23
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'm sure at some point we'll go that direction and we'll probably probably make complete fools of ourselves, because some of that stuff I just don't know about we may be wrong.
11:30
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yeah, we may be wrong, but I think I think it'll allow for a conversation about things that influence amateur radio, affect amateur radio, help and even hinder, in some cases, the hobby.
11:43
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think it'll just be a conversation where we kind of hit on those types of topics, not just necessarily technical items.
11:51
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think we're thinking about talking about equipment.
11:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Of course we're going to talk about equipment.
11:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Some of us purchase a lot of equipment.
11:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Some of us purchase a lot of equipment, some of us sell a lot of equipment Guilty as charged.
12:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Right, so we will talk about that, but I think the topics will be a lot more broad than just the technical side.
12:13
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, and I don't think I have much to add.
12:14
James Mills, K8JKU: Jim touched on it.
12:15
James Mills, K8JKU: For me the hobby is I know a lot of people may not agree with it, however, I do feel if I look at our demographic window I see it growing, a new audience coming in and I also like more than ever, as Jim alluded to before, there are distinct silos back in the hobby that overlap.
12:32
James Mills, K8JKU: Ham radio has always been a hobby of many hobbies within it, Um, but you're definitely seeing a lot of uh, a lot of cool new things come out, from emergency preparedness to to the parks on the air, to to contesting people learning CW again and getting out there and keying and, um, I just think it's uh.
12:50
James Mills, K8JKU: For me personally, I like it as an idea of sort of journaling the growth of the hobby for myself and for you guys, and what I've learned and what's coming up and having an opportunity to share that with others as well, which I think is a pretty cool idea and something that we can do for each other as well.
13:07
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, I like what you just said there, which is there's many ways to ham that's my summary right there's no wrong way to ham.
13:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There is no wrong way to eat the Reese's here.
13:16
Jim Davis, N8JRD: No, it really is.
13:17
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Every time I turn on my computer and I pick up a radio, I find something new that I haven't explored yet, and that's what's really exciting about it is often I'll pick up a new hobby and for a few months I'm really really interested in it, and after those few months go by you feel like you've reached a sort of maybe not mastery, but you've gotten pretty good at it, and so it becomes difficult to continue to feel like you're expanding your skill set and then your interest kind of wanes.
13:47
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And so I love that about radio, and I like that.
13:50
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You mentioned that there's just so many ways that you can use your radio.
13:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: The same radio can be used to send pictures, it can be used to talk to someone on a two-meter repeater.
13:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It can be used to have a digital conversation halfway across the world on 30 watts.
14:03
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's awesome just how much you can do with it, and I think that that is the draw now is you've got more interest in exploring those more niche use cases for it, and it's always been one of curiosity.
14:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: The hobby has always been one of curiosity, but I think that it's really exciting to hear that.
14:23
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah.
14:24
James Mills, K8JKU: So I think with that we can move on to the main topic and everyone bear in mind we will get to more meaty topics in the future, we promise.
14:31
James Mills, K8JKU: But since it is January and we're still in the mood of 2025 just starting, we figured we'd do.
14:39
James Mills, K8JKU: What are we excited for in the year 2025, specifically related to amateur radio or really anything we feel in our lives that maybe is important to us.
14:50
James Mills, K8JKU: So, jim, if you're willing to kick it off, why?
14:54
James Mills, K8JKU: Don't we go to you and let's see what your 2025 looks like.
14:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah Well, it's so easy as a six-month-old ham, so to speak, to be excited about pretty much everything this year.
15:06
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So top of my list, of course, is I already do have my campsite booked, and so do many of the folks in our club to go to Hamvention and so as a guy.
15:16
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You have your hotel booked Yep.
15:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Rory Rory, you have your hotel booked.
15:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I don't hate that at all.
15:21
James Mills, K8JKU: Rory may be the smartest of us all.
15:23
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Let's just acknowledge that now.
15:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's right.
15:25
Jim Davis, N8JRD: No, as a ham that's never been to Hamvention, I feel like you got to reach a sort of like ham mecca at some point and Hamvention might be that place.
15:35
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right, I am certainly excited about it.
15:38
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I've been looking forward to it for a number of months and it's fun to hear the stories from club members that have gone for years, what they think is awesome about it, what they think is annoying about it, because it certainly is a place full of people More coffee vendors.
15:54
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's why I'm staying at a hotel.
15:56
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Immediately more coffee vendors.
15:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There seems to be a problem with accessibility to coffee.
16:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I have been told this.
16:03
James Mills, K8JKU: I mean Rory, and I might need a fix from time to time and we need more of it.
16:06
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Oh, it's bad.
16:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's probably my biggest complaint about Dayton Amvention, though, is the lack of coffee vendors.
16:16
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's not good.
16:18
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's really it when you have.
16:20
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't know how many people go to Dayton every year I don't know those numbers but when the average of them are all dudes and old dudes and people that run on coffee in general, or young dudes or middle-aged dudes, I suppose, that run on coffee.
16:34
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You've got one coffee little coffee cart with you know little trailer little I don't know 10 foot trailer, probably smaller than that, and they have, like you know, five boxes of donuts and you know a few things, of coffee to try and get through the morning.
16:48
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It doesn't work, it just doesn't work.
16:52
Jim Davis, N8JRD: To talk about the scale of Hamvention.
16:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: A quick AI insight on that.
16:56
Jim Davis, N8JRD: 2024's event apparently set a record with over 35,000 attendees, so that's a lot of people in a fairground-sized space with two boxes of donuts and a couple of pots of coffee.
17:10
James Mills, K8JKU: So what's funny too, jim, when you brought up your topic, and the smile I initially had was we didn't tell each other our 2025s before we started.
17:19
James Mills, K8JKU: And I had a similar one involving Hamvention on my list and I knew it would match in.
17:24
James Mills, K8JKU: But mine's a little bit different.
17:25
James Mills, K8JKU: Mine is my first time at Hamvention was last year.
17:29
James Mills, K8JKU: So 2024, hamvention, the record-breaking year, and it's a lot to take in.
17:33
James Mills, K8JKU: You're learning the lay of the land, day one, learning how to navigate, learning what vendors are there, do all the things people tell you you got to do, and it's kind of a whirlwind.
17:46
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm excited for year two because now that I have that base of knowledge I get to, I think, dive a little bit deeper.
17:49
James Mills, K8JKU: Right, I know where to go get the things I need, to get what's there already, so I can kind of save my pennies and go out and spend them a little bit more wisely.
17:56
James Mills, K8JKU: I can find the coffee cart where I know I got to go at these hours because it's not going to have the long line or run out of coffee.
18:02
James Mills, K8JKU: So kind of looking at it with maybe some new, fresh eyes and a comfortability to it, and I'm really excited for that.
18:10
James Mills, K8JKU: Because now I know more people in the hobby.
18:12
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm going with a lot of our club members and friends and to spend that time and to camp and do all these things are really exciting for me and I think it's going to be a new perspective on something.
18:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah.
18:24
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So this will be my fourth Dayton hamvention.
18:27
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I've done three at the current location and I did one at the original location back either 2004, 2006.
18:35
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It was one or the other, so that one was a quick, quick for me.
18:39
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Down to the, the early one I took the, the bus out of ann arbor that the aero club provides and, with a, with a ham friend of mine, blasted down there, walked around real quick, bought a vx7 and came home.
18:50
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That was my my first dayton dayton nice and, um, I still have that vx7.
18:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yep, and then I didn't go again until 2022.
19:04
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think that's right.
19:06
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yeah, one of my ham friends, sean Cade SAW, had already been several times to the new spot and wanted me to get down there, so I agreed and made a quick trip and then last year I went as well, but this year it is, I think, particularly um, going to be a good time.
19:24
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I just the social group.
19:25
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There's so many more people like the club's grown.
19:27
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I've met more people it has you know, just from being more active.
19:31
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Um, in general, I I know a lot more people that are going to be there.
19:35
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So the, the, the show at the at the fairgrounds, will be good, and then the, the campground.
19:40
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's always a plus too.
19:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yes, I will be at the campground a little bit, even though I'll go hide at the hotel.
19:46
James Mills, K8JKU: You have an open invitation, yeah.
19:48
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You're welcome to come have a s'more with us.
19:51
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I will be there, but I will be at some point retiring to the holiday inn.
19:56
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Well, the bed will probably be way more comfortable there.
19:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Let's be real.
19:59
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah and less rain.
20:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Let's not say it out loud.
20:03
James Mills, K8JKU: I know everybody says that you guys get rain every year.
20:05
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm a horrible person.
20:07
James Mills, K8JKU: I fully own that one.
20:08
James Mills, K8JKU: Rory, what was your 2025?
20:10
James Mills, K8JKU: What would you say?
20:14
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Two things and a bigger thing.
20:15
Rory Locke, W8KRX: One and you, like we talked about earlier, is you beat us on this.
20:20
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I figure I've been a ham more than 20 years.
20:22
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's time to get the extra done.
20:23
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I just need to get the, the extra class, done.
20:26
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't care about the, the frequencies and the extra stuff that you get with extra, but I need to get it done.
20:32
Rory Locke, W8KRX: The one goal and it'll take me most of the summer to work up to it the second goal I guess it'll take me most of the summer to work up to it is I want to do a CW POTA activation and that'll take some work.
20:45
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I still need to finesse some parts of my Morse vocabulary.
20:51
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have a lot of it.
20:52
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I can follow more than I realize when I actually listen.
20:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But I was talking to another ham friend of ours, frank NFAM, who's done a ton of CW over his life and I told him I struggle mostly with the numerals, the numbers and a couple of the letters and he gave me some tips of things to listen to and to play with, to practice that.
21:16
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And I think I'll do a little bit of that and see how I get, and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out but it's something I want to do.
21:22
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And then the big goal is I got to get an HF antenna outside this condo life is terrible.
21:31
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I have wires running around my attic.
21:33
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have wires running around my living room, down the hall.
21:36
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I can't do that.
21:37
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I need an antenna outside.
21:40
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We did say this was going to be a relatable podcast, and I think most folks are in a situation most are in a situation where there's a limited way that they can install an antenna.
21:49
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So I don't think you're unusual as far as it goes.
21:52
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Most folks have this problem, so we'll be curious to hear what your solution to that problem is that sounds like future episodes for sure?
22:00
James Mills, K8JKU: Because, uh yeah, Jim, and I went through that earlier this year.
22:03
James Mills, K8JKU: Well, you, you have an abundance of HF antennas that might be overdue.
22:08
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'll save it for another time, cause I have strong feelings about the things that I've put up.
22:13
James Mills, K8JKU: Well, and I, and I am.
22:14
James Mills, K8JKU: I am an HOA, not to quote another YouTube channel but I'm an HOA, ham.
22:18
James Mills, K8JKU: So, I definitely had on a smaller lot, so my footprint's not as big, so I had some more limitations.
22:26
James Mills, K8JKU: But I still remember the experience of being able to run that coax into my house and flip on a radio without having to go out in my garage and put up the Soda Bean mask and all that and it was a great day.
22:36
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, absolutely.
22:41
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Even when I finally ran the wire in the attic it had a had a better working hf antenna, and that's just in the last couple months.
22:45
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I mean that's that's maybe two or three months at the most ago, I climbed up in the attic and and because there's a whole story there too, but we could, I don't know, but um you know the antenna follies episode.
22:59
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Well, just the buy a radio because it's a good price from a guy in a neighboring city and then realizing, well, I'm going to have this sitting on my desk with no real antenna to use it.
23:09
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So then, one day after work I'm crawling around the attic and I'm surprised I didn't fall through because my attic is interesting.
23:17
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But yeah, no, we got it.
23:20
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But I got to get something outside.
23:22
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Jim was over here and we were wandering around looking at my trees off the side of the building.
23:28
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We have an idea.
23:29
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There's a couple of good opportunities out there, I think, and they'll have to wait, I think, until at least spring or warmer winter.
23:37
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'm not going to freeze, as far as the joke goes of doing antenna work in the winter, like everyone tends to do this one, I'm not going to freeze to do.
23:46
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's worth saying that if anybody isn't familiar with where the three of us are located.
23:50
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It is very cold over here right now.
23:52
James Mills, K8JKU: We are in the southern part of Michigan and it is 18 Fahrenheit out today we're not even in the cold part of Michigan.
24:01
Jim Davis, N8JRD: No, we're not, but it is very cold and I will also.
24:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I like part of Rory's story, because it will probably come up again and again if we keep doing this is I not only love buying equipment, but I also love sharing great deals so that other people buy equipment and Rory may have fallen victim by buying that 7100.
24:17
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Oh, we're on number two.
24:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: See, I'm doing great, I'm doing excellent.
24:20
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, you're helping other people spend their money.
24:23
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's a great job.
24:23
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Well, there's two items I purchased that would not have occurred without your influence and or assistance.
24:28
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So we have everyone's favorite mobile antenna, the ATOS 120, that people either love or hate.
24:37
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So, you know, doing all this poda and you've got to get to a park, got to set up an antenna and do all the things.
24:43
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Wouldn't it be nice just to have your car ready to go and you just pull into the park?
24:47
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So the ATOS seems like a good thing and my poda rig's an FT-891, so those work nicely together.
24:55
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Absolutely.
24:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So I don't even know how did you acquire it first.
25:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You bought it from someone.
25:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, I mean it goes back to the classic N8JRD deal, which is you're browsing Facebook on a random afternoon and you're headed north to Gaylord and a guy posts something for a great deal and you just have to have it.
25:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So you go, get $500 out of the bank and pretty soon you have new radios and antennas and cable and the whole nine out of the bank and pretty soon you have new radios and antennas and cable and the whole nine.
25:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So yeah, that was an, uh, that that deal was pretty fun.
25:22
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That was a, an ft 897d, which is an older hf rig, but all mode uh, pretty, pretty well sought after rig and I know my dad had a couple of them uh in his day, um, but uh, pick that up you.
25:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yep, rory has one.
25:34
Jim Davis, N8JRD: James, do you have one secretly?
25:36
James Mills, K8JKU: no, no, I got there.
25:38
James Mills, K8JKU: However, he did get me on the ATAS.
25:39
James Mills, K8JKU: Let's see, this is a full round robin.
25:43
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I was going to lead into that actually.
25:46
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So Jim decides the ATAS at that moment is not for him.
25:49
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It came with the 897.
25:51
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I bought the 897, the ATAS and some extra parts for $500, which is a killer deal.
25:55
Jim Davis, N8JRD: The ATAS is probably $300, right?
25:59
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So?
25:59
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I had been thinking about it and I said, well, wouldn't it be nice, since I hear such terrible stories about the ATOS, to just try it on my vehicle and see how it works?
26:08
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So I borrow it and I figure I'm going to have it a week.
26:11
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have it a little while and Jim says, well, you should just buy it.
26:17
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Here's the deal.
26:18
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And Jim says, well, you should just buy it.
26:21
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Here's the deal, and I think it was radio club meeting that Sunday and I had the cash in my pocket and ready to go sold and that did result in James buying one because I gave it positive review and at another event you were able to see it operate, at least enough to understand it, I think.
26:41
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, at a POTA event.
26:43
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, and you even had it in a, let's say, less than flattering operational position mounted on your Jeep on the back lift gate.
26:51
James Mills, K8JKU: It's non-grounded and it still performed well.
26:54
James Mills, K8JKU: And for those that don't know, the ATAS 120 is the ASu's automatic active tuning uh mobile antenna.
27:00
James Mills, K8JKU: Yep, um, so it's uh, I don't know how big it is, but it's a coil and actuates based up and down, based on the azu, uh, your azu radio, sending in a signal and adjust.
27:11
James Mills, K8JKU: And yeah, I tried it and you were.
27:14
James Mills, K8JKU: I mean, we did a demonstration like you flipped it on, you tuned it to, I think it was even.
27:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Which is the tallest band to tune to?
27:20
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah which is the tallest they'll go up to and I think the SWR at a not so great spot, ungrounded, was 1.5-ish under two, it was under two Totally transmittable.
27:31
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, making beautiful context, good audio, good signal reports.
27:35
James Mills, K8JKU: And winter was coming so I was definitely tempted to play the song, set up my yeah, my soda beams outside my Jeep.
27:42
James Mills, K8JKU: So, yeah, I was a sucker, I paid full price for mine.
27:48
James Mills, K8JKU: I bought mine, got a second 891 mounted in my Jeep and actually for a episode idea in the future are mobile installations, because for my Jeep, which is a little bit more off-road outfitted, I do do a lot of trails and also love going, hiking and other things that require sometimes an off-road vehicle in the area.
28:07
James Mills, K8JKU: But I love having what I learned on my ATAS and where to mount it on a Jeep Wrangler JK.
28:12
James Mills, K8JKU: But we have some interesting setups, jim, because you have your BMW there as well with an interesting setup.
28:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, I have two very starkly opposite rigs that I have radios in Nothing, with an HF rig that's permanently mounted.
28:28
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I do have a POTA setup and we'll talk about POTA setups, I'm sure, at some point.
28:32
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But no, both my rigs are very much the opposite end of the spectrum.
28:36
Jim Davis, N8JRD: The first is a opposite end of the spectrum, the first is a three-quarter.
28:42
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's a full-size truck 350, f350 with a FTM 500, which I like that radio a lot.
28:45
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I came in after the FTM 400 had already been retired and so I didn't really get the pleasure of having the big screen that everybody loved on it.
28:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So I just bought the 500, thinking hey, this is the best radio that Yezu has that could be installed in a mobile, and I have enjoyed using it.
29:01
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And then the i3, which is the small carbon fiber battery-powered only car, very tiny got a little FTM 300.
29:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And I tried a very svelte through glass antenna on that and I promptly melted it.
29:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So that didn't work great, and so what I ended up doing was going back to a very well-respected antenna that the club runs.
29:23
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I believe it's a Diamond.
29:25
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We'll look up the number for you guys, but it's an antenna that uses VHB.
29:31
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's stuck to the outside window.
29:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I've got the cord run pretty nicely on the outside of the vehicle so that it's not in the way of its normal use and it turned out really well.
29:41
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It works just about as good as the full-size truck does and I'm really happy with that mobile installation.
29:46
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But I'm sure we'll go into mobile in more depth at some point, and we'll have to talk about that one, because yours is an excellent solution for someone who can't use a mag mount or has no way to do a lip mount Yours works well.
29:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Mount or has no way to do a lip mount yours works well.
30:00
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, the i3 is a unique vehicle.
30:01
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It exhibits almost all of the most challenging things that a vehicle can exhibit for a ham radio operator, which is there's almost no metal.
30:10
James Mills, K8JKU: It's a proving ground if you will.
30:11
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There's almost no metal on the car.
30:12
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's glass, plastic and carbon fiber.
30:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So there's no place to put an antenna where you gain any sort of real benefit from an RF perspective.
30:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There's no good ground plane.
30:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So yeah, you're at the mercy of buying a properly ground-independent-tech material era where you're going to have to use some of these different options and move away from some of the traditional mounts that were magnetic or lip-mounted, because the materials don't support those things.
30:54
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah yeah, it's becoming more aluminum, more everything.
30:56
James Mills, K8JKU: So awesome.
30:58
James Mills, K8JKU: But I think we've learned we're not good at staying on a topic which is a journey for ourselves.
31:03
James Mills, K8JKU: But, Rory, back to your CW real quickly.
31:06
James Mills, K8JKU: We have the Winners Support your Parks event coming up.
31:09
James Mills, K8JKU: Do you think you might want to give it a try on a safe space surrounded by friends?
31:16
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'll be activating Winners Support your Parks from somewhere in Indiana.
31:19
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have an event that's taken me out of state and that's another topic if we want to go off.
31:25
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Topic are other hobbies and other ham radio adjacent things.
31:28
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But we do in our lives but that could be another time too.
31:32
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But I'll be down in Indiana for something that weekend and the plan is to depart from sunday morning and get a quick activation just to have a support your parks in the book and then head home.
31:44
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Uh, so unfortunately I will not be out there with you guys yeah, the the club uh, the south lion club, which is what we belong to, the south lion area amateur radio club uh is an extremely active club when it comes to uh the support your parks uh days, and so we usually do try to plan a date around that, a date being at the park, someplace where all of us can get together and activate and get our credit for that support your parks experience.
32:08
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And, yeah, this one's a pretty exciting one because the club did go ahead and cover the accommodations for the weekend.
32:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So we'll be out at the Brighton state recreation area in a heated cabin where we'll be able to Brighton State Recreation.
32:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Area in a heated cabin where we'll be able to yeah a lot nicer than pitching a tent in the snow, and we'll have all of our antennas set up, we'll have some stations available and it'll be an outreach event to some extent too.
32:32
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right, we'll all get our credit.
32:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think all of us are extremely active on POTA and you can go check out our awards if you're interested.
32:39
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We'll we'll try to chase you down if you're listening.
32:40
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Um, but uh, but yeah, we'll be out there and uh folks can show up and uh explore uh hf using the club call too.
32:48
James Mills, K8JKU: so it'll be a really neat experience, I think, and looking forward to that, but yeah, yeah, that'll be good and, uh, I guess I, I I piggybacked on your 2025, jim, you did.
32:59
James Mills, K8JKU: I have a sort of I don't think it's going to happen in 2025 list, but I'm curious to see what would happen.
33:10
James Mills, K8JKU: Never say never, maybe even divulges off the topic a little bit too.
33:13
James Mills, K8JKU: Okay, I'm curious more than anything.
33:17
James Mills, K8JKU: I don't think anything's really going to happen, but I'm curious with AI and all the availability of AI, the buzz of AI, the tools available, nvidia launching its own personal AI computer for $3,000 at the Consumer Electronics Show this last weekend.
33:33
James Mills, K8JKU: If it ever comes into ham radio and again, don't think 2025 is a year I think ham radio is a hobby that is, uh, loves its traditions.
33:44
James Mills, K8JKU: It's a hobby with some frugal individuals that love building their own equipment, which is awesome, and one of the other side hobbies.
33:51
James Mills, K8JKU: That's one of the best parts, um, but you know there are a lot of advantages, especially as manufacturers start to build more radios.
33:58
James Mills, K8JKU: With sdr, uh, you look at, look at active noise cancellation through AI algorithms.
34:03
James Mills, K8JKU: You look at some more automated logging for contesting being an option and some support there.
34:08
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm curious.
34:10
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm curious at Hamvention or any of these other activities.
34:12
James Mills, K8JKU: If that starts to become a topic, again, I'm not very hopeful.
34:17
James Mills, K8JKU: Nor would I personally think I would enjoy it.
34:20
James Mills, K8JKU: But again, if the buzz carries over into other parts of my life, I guess.
34:25
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think the big thing oh, go ahead.
34:26
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Rory, I'd like to hear yours.
34:27
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So how far in AI?
34:28
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Because if you really want to look at it, it's already started.
34:33
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Look at, we've been doing some work with the local repeater here here and we've chosen to go ai for for some of the speaking voices on it at some point so it's it started, how it's not not gone very far.
34:45
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But could it get to the point where, instead of very manually making those voices, um, do what they do, could we, could we have a prompt, or we could we could program right into it and it would read it without having to record it and upload?
34:59
Jim Davis, N8JRD: it and do all the things.
35:00
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So you know it's already starting.
35:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So, and someone at work today our marketing guy, was telling me about a conference he went to recently and I guess our cloud service that we use at work it's a large company.
35:15
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's a large company.
35:18
Rory Locke, W8KRX: They have an AI overlay to it to where, instead of searching for your files, you just give it a brief prompt of which file you want and it finds it using.
35:26
James Mills, K8JKU: AI.
35:30
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So AI is going to start doing all the things, and I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up in ham radio more than just what we're using it for here.
35:36
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, Well, even things like Jim I'll give you a second here even things like propagation reporting and data analytics seeing what you could get out of that from a more maybe tactile, actual, usable data for a lot of hams that go to a website and here's the AI generated model of propagation or the best chance to make a contact with if you want that rare DX somewhere, this maybe is your best time, which I know.
35:59
James Mills, K8JKU: Those models are out there, I know the graphs are there and there's a lot of really good websites that have that.
36:03
James Mills, K8JKU: But you start to add some, let's say, intelligence behind it or more quick data analytics.
36:09
James Mills, K8JKU: It becomes a little more intriguing.
36:11
James Mills, K8JKU: It becomes more.
36:12
James Mills, K8JKU: I was just going to say I think that your example is prime.
36:16
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's what I was thinking about saying right out of the gate, which is it becomes more approachable, right?
36:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I don't necessarily know and this is going to sound ridiculous, right?
36:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I've only been operating HF for a few months.
36:27
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I don't necessarily know how to use the beacon stations right, for example, and so what?
36:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: There we go.
36:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So those things that seasoned hams have used and leveraged to understand better propagation and where they can get out to so that they can become competitive in events.
36:43
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think that what this does is it makes that type of thing more approachable to newer hams, folks that are still learning it, and what I hope happens is that in doing that, it will expose those hams in a way that says okay, that's a really useful tool.
36:58
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'm going to go learn a little more about it so that I could do it myself if I need to Now not everybody's going to do that At some point or another, if somebody makes dinner for me, I probably am going to love that dinner gets made for me, right?
37:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But if the propagation reports are easy to get, I love that.
37:16
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Sure, I'll take a look, I'll see where I can get out and then I'll point my antenna in that direction.
37:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And now this all presumes that I have a beam, which I do not, on this house here, so not yet.
37:26
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Not yet it would be great.
37:27
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And I had one other thought there, which is to say that I don't necessarily think we're going to see AI in the sense that we see it in a lot of the networked applications on our computers yet, but I do think that we'll start to see it nip at some of the added enhancements, and one of the things you mentioned that I think is really likely to see at first is the ability to clean up audio in more effective ways.
37:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right Filtering could benefit tremendously from being able to be cleaned up and made legible at lower powers.
38:01
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And I think that what you're going to see is, with enough cleanup, you start to compete with some of these digital modes that are very low power on sideband, on phone and some of those other places.
38:10
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Now that's a longer shot.
38:12
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right, that's going to take a lot of work, but I do think that that's where it's going to start to shine is being able to enhance some of those things that we've been doing using initially analog and now digital filters.
38:23
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Seeing those things evolve even further and I think places like Flex Radio are probably going to be the first folks to do it, because they're already SDR.
38:30
Jim Davis, N8JRD: They're already developing an expansive suite of software, but we'll find out, and I'm excited to see what that looks like in coming years.
38:38
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Rory had something there.
38:41
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't know that I did.
38:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think I was just agreeing with what you were saying.
38:44
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But the idea of AI on the essentially the way you describe it coming on as a digital mode, is very interesting and it does make sense that it would potentially be able to do that at some point Pick a weak signal, clean it up and spit it back out to where you can hear it.
39:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's fascinating and I never thought about it that way, but that would take a lot of things to a new level if that became an option.
39:13
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to create it because I could probably make some money.
39:19
James Mills, K8JKU: And that's a little bit why I said it's a moonshot for me, because you look at a mode like FT8, ft4, weak signal propagation or those, and that's still a controversial mode for activating for some people.
39:30
James Mills, K8JKU: We have members that love FT8.
39:34
James Mills, K8JKU: We have members that don't understand FT8.
39:36
James Mills, K8JKU: We have members that just meh, it's not for me and I'll never do it, and all are right.
39:41
James Mills, K8JKU: There's no wrong answer there.
39:42
James Mills, K8JKU: But you start to add in more, let's say AI-based features or something.
39:48
James Mills, K8JKU: I wonder if people would be more pushed back to it.
39:51
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, it would be interesting to understand whether or not operators will embrace something that seems to take some of the control out of their hands.
39:57
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's what I always look at it, and when we talk about the digital modes, I think that's one of the big reasons that there is consternation, so to speak, on those modes.
40:06
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right, it doesn't feel as a traditional ham, like they're doing all the things that were required to make a contact, and so it feels almost easier, and I think that's a good thing, because it does make it approachable for certain people.
40:19
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, absolutely yeah, yeah.
40:21
James Mills, K8JKU: I mean again, I'm not using it as a derogatory term.
40:24
James Mills, K8JKU: You have some people that consider themselves appliance operators.
40:29
James Mills, K8JKU: They just want to buy something, plug it in, have relative success with it, and to them, making those use-os is all they want, they're perfectly happy Again.
40:39
James Mills, K8JKU: There's nothing wrong with that, it's fine.
40:40
James Mills, K8JKU: But then you have people that want to hit the knobs, they want to hit the buttons, they want to hear the static, and you know, it's kind of why I'm in radio.
40:48
James Mills, K8JKU: I want to feel like I'm doing something a little bit here and that I have some control and experiment and see how things change when I turn the knob a little bit differently.
40:56
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, manipulate the dials right and see what your change results, manipulate the dials and see what results of your changes.
41:04
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So no, I love that idea.
41:06
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think I'm totally in agreement with you.
41:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I don't think this is the year that we see it in a big way, but I think that's probably a two or three year out type of thing, and I would also say that whenever somebody asks me about this in just a general context AI in a general context, because it's everywhere right now.
41:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We're so early on in the evolution of what it's going to be that we don't necessarily understand it yet, and I think that it is currently mostly a marketing term and and and that's heavily.
41:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, and that, and that's where we're at with it right now, and there are certainly some bright lights, uh, that it will uh, certainly probably develop from, but not, not, not yet.
41:46
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So we'll see what happens though.
41:47
James Mills, K8JKU: That's why I said moonshot.
41:48
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm curious.
41:49
James Mills, K8JKU: It's more of a curiosity, and if it's going to come out, it's going to be Hamvention or the Tokyo radio show, probably.
41:57
James Mills, K8JKU: Tokyo, yeah, I had to pick two activity or inventions that it may come out at in the future.
42:03
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Well, that's a great little segue, since we're still talking a little bit about 2025 and Hamvention here as our excitement for the year.
42:12
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yep, bring it right back around.
42:14
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Are there any things this year at Hamvention that you think that we're going to see, that are going to be exciting, or have we already seen all of those things at Tokyo's Ham Show?
42:25
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Well, you know, I'm excited to get my hands on and see, hopefully, the new Kenwood mobile that's, that's a big one for me.
42:31
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Um, that we, we all got teased with with the uh, the Tokyo show, the great, the grainy photo, the grainy photo.
42:40
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And that was one of those funny things.
42:41
Rory Locke, W8KRX: None of you guys caught that and I'm like didn't anyone see that?
42:44
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That that big old thing, icon that it was showing off that everyone wanted to see this.
42:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: What is it?
42:56
Rory Locke, W8KRX: 7650 yeah, the flex beast, basically yeah I could have cared less about that, because I'll never own one, but the 7760 7760 yep, good, I'm glad I'm good at numbers, but you were close.
43:09
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yeah, the Kenwood.
43:12
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There's a few other things, small things.
43:15
Rory Locke, W8KRX: When you get to Dayton Jim, I think you'll understand this when you start seeing the smaller booths with the more innovative, the more random stuff.
43:24
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I shouldn't say the more random stuff, but the people that have created something.
43:28
Rory Locke, W8KRX: The guy who, for example, the guy you know, everyone in the club is aware I run the compact tenna, the little funny looking antenna that that sits on the back corner of your vehicle for my mobile.
43:39
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You know that guy's at that date and talking about all his crazy ideas.
43:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You know, last year he was showing off a, I think, a 40 meter antenna that sits in a bucket.
43:47
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I mean, it's literally the bucket, you know.
43:50
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You know, those are the things I look forward to, more than the big radios that are there for sale.
43:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's fun to see the new stuff.
43:57
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And one other thing that's continuing to grow as POTA grows is portable power.
44:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I think we'll see some more options and cheaper options for portable power at Dayton this year too.
44:11
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, I mean two things there.
44:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think the innovative stuff is definitely usually going to come from those kind of homebrewers still, and it's exciting to see those guys still showing up to a big show like Hamvention and putting it all out there right, showing these smaller or niche products that they've developed and they may work well and they may not.
44:31
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think that the 40 meter bucket antenna that you talked about I did look at at some point because I'm in an HOA.
44:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I thought, oh, I'll throw it out in the backyard.
44:39
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Reviews were somewhat mixed so I decided I'll go a different direction.
44:43
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But it was just a really cool thing to see that that was an option for you as a ham and it's the size of a paint pail, so it's really not that big.
44:51
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You as a ham, and it's the size of a paint pail, so it's really not that big.
44:55
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But no, I think that that answer is really interesting.
44:57
Jim Davis, N8JRD: The Kenwood mobile rig is going to be exciting to see.
44:59
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think it was a sort of sleeper at the Tokyo Fair.
45:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It got overshadowed by the FTX1F, which is the Yaesu QRP rig that's coming out that everybody's got a pre-order for.
45:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I do, I think James does.
45:13
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, I put in my $35, I believe, yeah, we're holding one.
45:14
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Who knows if we order it.
45:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But we both have the pre-order and the 7760, right, so the Kenwood kind of snuck under the radar, so I hope that at Dayton they make a little more of a splash with it.
45:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It does look like it will be very much.
45:26
Jim Davis, N8JRD: If you're a D75 operator.
45:28
Jim Davis, N8JRD: D74 operator, it's going to feel right at home and I hope that it has all of the coolest features that you're looking for.
45:34
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That's the hope I have with that radio because I do run the D74 handheld.
45:38
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Been very, very pleased with it and to have that in the mobile and it'll be a big upgrade.
45:45
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I do run the FTM 500 Yaesu in the mobile but that I put in the mobile simply just to learn with and play about Fusion a little bit.
45:52
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But my primary mobile is the older ID5100 ICOM which now is probably a 10-year-old radio at least Would you say you're primarily an ICOM user.
46:06
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Are we already picking camps?
46:08
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There's no good answer for that.
46:09
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have.
46:11
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have friends that would, at least for me.
46:13
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There's no good answer there, because I have friends who make fun of me, because there was a time when I said I will never buy a yezu or I would never buy an icon or I'm not buying a kenwood they're too expensive you can't do that, so yeah you know there there are uh companies that manufacturers of radios that I won't purchase, but that's another story for another time.
46:34
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Oh, yep, but no, I think primarily I am a Yaesu person that owns ICOM.
46:40
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I generally am more satisfied with my Yaesu products.
46:45
Rory Locke, W8KRX: My 891HF rig, I love it.
46:48
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I mean to me it has everything it needs um, the, the, the 500, the ftm 500 excellent radio um, and at some point I will have a yesu on the desk here to have fusion in the house.
47:01
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So, um, you know it will happen.
47:03
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Uh, falling into the icon world at the time was because I was operating a lot of d star at the time and that was their thing, so yeah.
47:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Icon was a little bit ahead of Yesu as far as digital was adoption was concerned.
47:19
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yeah, by by a little bit, by maybe a year or so, D star was out and then, and then they may have been out at the same time, but D star got a little bit more attention a little earlier than than fusion did.
47:33
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, attention a little earlier than than fusion did.
47:35
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, james, what do you mostly operate?
47:36
James Mills, K8JKU: Do you have any thoughts?
47:36
James Mills, K8JKU: What can't man getting thrown?
47:37
James Mills, K8JKU: Right into the camp bucket right um.
47:38
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm probably not much different than rory I.
47:41
James Mills, K8JKU: I like yezu products.
47:42
James Mills, K8JKU: Um.
47:43
James Mills, K8JKU: The 891 is my, my, uh, my trusty poda slash travel radio.
47:49
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Um so did I catch you have two of those.
47:51
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I missed that.
47:52
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I didn't realize you had a second one.
47:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You bought a second one I bought a second one.
47:55
James Mills, K8JKU: I full-time mounted one in the Jeep for the ATAS.
47:59
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I knew you did that, but I didn't realize it was a dedicated second rig.
48:03
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Good work.
48:04
James Mills, K8JKU: Because I didn't want to give up my dedicated POTA radio either.
48:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I love it, it fits nicely in my backpack.
48:09
James Mills, K8JKU: That's a good one.
48:09
James Mills, K8JKU: That would be too crazy.
48:11
James Mills, K8JKU: Plus, I figured it was never bad.
48:12
James Mills, K8JKU: What was it?
48:13
James Mills, K8JKU: Mike W8MSC?
48:14
James Mills, K8JKU: I think it was him.
48:15
James Mills, K8JKU: If you like it and it's available, buy two, because you never know when you're going to need the spare.
48:20
James Mills, K8JKU: Basically, it's good advice to live by, especially when it comes to things like masks.
48:24
James Mills, K8JKU: The radio is maybe a bit much because that's a high price item.
48:34
James Mills, K8JKU: Let's not get too carried away.
48:34
James Mills, K8JKU: But yeah, um, but my, my trusty hf radio at the moment is a icon 7300.
48:36
James Mills, K8JKU: That's what I have in the basement and it's it's.
48:37
James Mills, K8JKU: It's good for me.
48:38
James Mills, K8JKU: I like it.
48:38
James Mills, K8JKU: It's uh compact, it has the features.
48:41
James Mills, K8JKU: But, um, I tend to like the yuzu inner, which is maybe a little bit uh controversial.
48:45
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I tend to like the yuzu interface.
48:48
James Mills, K8JKU: Um, I feel like the menu systems to me actually make sense and get in and get going and I like them and I like the performance and I like the styling, which is maybe the least ham thing to say.
48:59
Jim Davis, N8JRD: No, I think that's totally fair.
49:00
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I mean, a lot of us do.
49:02
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, you like the look of the radio too.
49:04
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think that's a totally fair thing to say.
49:05
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I've heard the Yaesu products are likened to a more audiophile equipment type appeal or aesthetic, which is like big knobs and like old stereo look, whereas the Icom stuff does look a little bit more digital, you know buttons and touchscreens and that type of thing.
49:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I do think that Yaesu has moved more in that direction recently.
49:24
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But you're absolutely right, that is, I think, a controversial decision.
49:27
Jim Davis, N8JRD: As far as preferring the Yaesu UI, I like the menus.
49:31
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, over the Ui.
49:31
James Mills, K8JKU: I want to be heard again.
49:34
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Comparing that Yaesu kind of has a fine line.
49:36
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I mean they kind of do both.
49:38
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Look at the 500.
49:39
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Gigantic knob, but also a touchscreen.
49:42
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's true.
49:42
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's true the smallest touchscreen known to man, by the way.
49:46
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I always forget it's a touchscreen, but it is a touchscreen.
49:52
Jim Davis, N8JRD: If you have a tiny stylus in your pocket, you can use it, but if you have sausage fingers like myself.
49:56
James Mills, K8JKU: Good luck, I think, for myself, maybe going back to invention really quickly, because we're probably running a little bit out of time here.
50:01
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm curious to see in terms of solar panels Again, we're pretty heavily I think we made this clear by this point we're pretty heavily I think we made this clear by this point we're pretty heavily in mobile operation and POTA and you know, like Powerfilm Solar with the crystalline PV, I think they are panels, the really lightweight, really foldable panels.
50:21
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm curious to see if the price starts to drop on those a little bit, because right now they're definitely out of my market.
50:32
James Mills, K8JKU: Maybe if I spent a little less time buying two P91s I could probably afford one, but just that type of mobile power.
50:38
James Mills, K8JKU: The LiPo are excellent batteries, but if you're going to go out and sit at a campground or a park somewhere out in the wilderness for a little while, it's nice to have that charging option and those seem to be, from a portability standpoint, they can't be beat.
50:52
James Mills, K8JKU: And I have the BioNL panels now I'm trying to remember which one, which model.
50:56
James Mills, K8JKU: They're great, fold up to about briefcase size, obviously, much thinner than a briefcase, absolutely, but it's still chunky.
51:05
James Mills, K8JKU: It's still a little bit of a pain to set up and just to see where the panels start to go in the marketplace.
51:12
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think the power situation has evolved so quickly too.
51:16
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Batteries specifically.
51:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: In the last couple of years we've gotten much less expensive high quality cells that are able to run our radios for longer in the field and more reliably than ever before so many manufacturers and options.
51:32
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yep, yep, it used to be a very few that you could buy from and you were looking at many hundreds of dollars to get a fairly, uh, you know, small sell Uh.
51:40
Jim Davis, N8JRD: But no, in the last uh, even 12 months, I think, we've seen a dramatic reduction in price and quality Uh, and that's really exciting to see because it does make the hobby more accessible, especially if you're going out with your radio and doing poda, for example, or taking it mobile or going camping.
51:55
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's just there's so many applications.
51:57
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So yeah, rory, that's a great great thing to keep an eyeball out for at Hamvention is what's happening in the power space, because that's one of those things that's evolving really quickly, and you mentioned.
52:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: You mentioned the size and all that getting so much.
52:09
Rory Locke, W8KRX: That was probably my original barrier to entry to POTA is I wasn't tuned in well enough to understand how good batteries and small batteries had become.
52:19
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah.
52:20
Rory Locke, W8KRX: And I started seeing online and some friends of mine purchasing all these various batteries that exist now and I'm like I can get this little thing and go play radio for an hour and then suddenly I'm out doing POTA all the time.
52:32
James Mills, K8JKU: So, yeah, it's all the gateway it was.
52:37
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I still have some batteries here that are from that, when I bought some that didn't last long.
52:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Anyway but yeah, it's come a long way, Boy, getting me excited for Dayton.
52:47
Rory Locke, W8KRX: We still have a few months to wait.
52:49
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It's going to come quicker than you expect.
52:51
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I have the campsite booked.
52:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I know that the entirety of the club I think well, not the entirety, but we have a good 10 or so people that are planning on coming.
53:00
James Mills, K8JKU: We got a good caravan going at the campground what Caesar Creek, we'll have a good section, if you will, of club members, which is again that's some of the most exciting parts of it is to go and see everything and everyone else's setups and shake hands and kiss babies.
53:16
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I love it.
53:16
James Mills, K8JKU: I love it, it's going to be great.
53:18
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, it's indicative of how vibrant the club is right now.
53:22
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'll say that out loud again.
53:23
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We've seen a lot of new faces in our club this year, and a lot of faces that have not had these experiences that many of these long-term hams have so this year, and a lot of faces that have not had these experiences that many of these long-term hams have.
53:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: So, uh, looking forward to uh learning a little bit from you guys that have done it four times Rory, uh, two times James, right, and uh, and going down there, and uh, I'll, I'll, I'll find my way around.
53:42
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It'll be a little bit like Braille to be, to begin with, right, I'll, I'm sure I'll make some little bit different.
53:48
James Mills, K8JKU: But I think the second year it's ham radio Disneyland.
53:50
James Mills, K8JKU: You'll be in awe, yeah it is a lot of fun and there's so much to see, and that's the thing too.
53:56
James Mills, K8JKU: Kind of back to Rory's part.
53:57
James Mills, K8JKU: I'm excited now I get to spend more time on those small niche things that I can.
54:02
James Mills, K8JKU: My eyes will be wider and it'll be fun.
54:07
Jim Davis, N8JRD: You'll be able to focus on the things that you're most interested this year.
54:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Right, you've learned a little bit from your previous visits and now you'll take that back and say I'm going to spend my time here because that's what's valuable to me as a ham.
54:17
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Yeah, this year I'll be down there for the longest duration.
54:20
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'll be spending the most time at Hamvention that I ever have, so it'll buy a lot of time to spend out at the flea market.
54:33
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I expect to walk around there and not have to rush through it, because, to look at that whole thing, well, it's really two things.
54:36
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's a lot to look at and if you do it all at once, the ground is uneven and your back will start to hurt.
54:42
Rory Locke, W8KRX: So you have to break it up and I'm not ready to be one of the scooter people at Dayton.
54:49
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Oh yeah.
54:51
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I'm still a good 20 years from now.
54:53
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Still holding out, eh.
54:53
Rory Locke, W8KRX: But yeah, I intend to spend a lot more time out in the flea market this year looking at treasures and not so much treasures, because that's the part that I've always had to rush through.
55:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Every year I've been there.
55:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Well, the good news is you'll have a very interested pal in that experience, because I love a good deal and I love sifting through the ham radio junk.
55:17
James Mills, K8JKU: So we'll go out there and spend a day or two out there, whatever we need to to find all the goodies, the amount of club text messages we're all going to get, of screen grabs of someone's table at the flea market from.
55:28
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Jim is probably going to be.
55:30
James Mills, K8JKU: We're probably gonna have to block you, but I did say that, uh, I'm my.
55:33
Jim Davis, N8JRD: My grail item is to go find an Alinko DJ C5.
55:37
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It is their credit card transceiver VHF, uhf, uh, metal case, uh, so it adopts the original style, case uh, and it has the speaker built in so you don't have to wear the stupid speaker in your ear.
55:48
Jim Davis, N8JRD: And I am excited If I find one.
55:50
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'm sure the battery is not going to work, but I'll take it apart.
55:53
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'll fix the battery and it's going to be awesome.
55:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: There it is.
55:55
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Mark my words.
55:56
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It was such a big deal when that thing came out.
55:58
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I remember that it was crazy.
55:59
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It was crazy, it was such a big deal.
56:02
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I don't know You'll find one.
56:06
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Dayton works.
56:07
Rory Locke, W8KRX: It's one of everything.
56:09
Jim Davis, N8JRD: If you're listening and you don't know what the Elinko DJC5 is, go put it in Google and stare at it in awe.
56:14
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'm just kidding.
56:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: It is a really neat little rig.
56:17
James Mills, K8JKU: You don't want to oversell it right now because you want to try to find one.
56:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That's right.
56:20
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Don't buy it.
56:21
Jim Davis, N8JRD: If you see it at Hamvention, tell them NAJRD will be around in short order to pick it up.
56:35
James Mills, K8JKU: Put but fine, all right, so maybe before we go, a little housekeeping.
56:37
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, so we're going to go for monthly format.
56:39
James Mills, K8JKU: I believe was what we're shooting for.
56:41
James Mills, K8JKU: So I think we have an Instagram which is at Everyday Ham Podcast.
56:42
James Mills, K8JKU: There we go.
56:43
James Mills, K8JKU: We have an email address.
56:45
James Mills, K8JKU: Now we're official everydayhampodcast at gmailcom.
56:48
James Mills, K8JKU: We're always looking for suggestions.
56:50
James Mills, K8JKU: We'll probably drop some content in between, let's say the uh episodes regularly scheduled episodes Yep.
56:57
James Mills, K8JKU: Um, but yeah, if.
56:59
James Mills, K8JKU: If anyone does like this, you know, please share it with your uh fellow friends and friends, and we'll we'll try to do this for ourselves here and then and share what we've learned with everyone else as well.
57:10
Jim Davis, N8JRD: Yeah, I think this is an exciting opportunity.
57:11
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I think it's a good group of folks here.
57:13
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I'm excited to work with you guys on this.
57:15
Jim Davis, N8JRD: I hope that we do come up with a couple of interesting topics that pique folks' interests and I am excited to see if we can get a couple of folks to give us good ideas as we progress.
57:26
Jim Davis, N8JRD: That won't be in the first couple of months.
57:27
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We're going to come up with some topics and we hope that you're interested, but as we go, check out the Instagram there, throw some ideas in the comments.
57:35
Jim Davis, N8JRD: All of us will be monitoring those and we'll try to come up with some nice intermediate content and love to hear feedback on how this first episode went.
57:43
Jim Davis, N8JRD: What did you like, what did we miss on, so that we can kind of evolve this as we go, because we're brand new.
57:49
Rory Locke, W8KRX: None of us have done a podcast before, as far as I am concerned and don't tell us we don't know how to stay on topic.
57:54
Jim Davis, N8JRD: We've already realized that, and I don't think that's going to improve.
57:59
Rory Locke, W8KRX: I have no promises to that regard.
58:02
James Mills, K8JKU: Well we can maybe promise is the off topics will get a little more entertaining value.
58:06
James Mills, K8JKU: I can almost guarantee that.
58:08
James Mills, K8JKU: Yeah, they will.
58:09
Rory Locke, W8KRX: We promise.
58:11
James Mills, K8JKU: All right With that.
58:11
James Mills, K8JKU: Thank you everyone, and we look forward to staying in touch with everyone.
58:16
James Mills, K8JKU: So give us your ideas, give us your suggestions and we'll keep doing this.
58:20
James Mills, K8JKU: 7-3's everybody N-A-J-R-E signing off 7-3.
58:24
Rory Locke, W8KRX: Good night.