Loading...

November 9, whiskey foxtrot, fox tangle. I'm GK7BSD here. Dan, yeah, I'm on, I'm actually just trying out a new radio. I've got a 1701 like the one you described. I'm on my own hot spot here in the house, and a condo, actually, so I have a difficult time putting antennas outside. However, I am currently on a new radio that I picked up, actually, several months ago at a slot meet. It's a VTech DMR6X2. Nice radio, except I cannot get the darn thing to program from the computer. So I've had to manually enter what channels I've got just to make sure the darn thing works, and it does work and it does sound great from the reports I've gotten. Now there is a repeater that I can reach from here. I'm not programmed on this one. I am on the 1701, because that one can be programmed on... Shoot. Yeah. Why can't I make it a name? Oh well. Three signs of old age versus lost memory, I forget the other two. It's a...chirp. Couldn't I take a chirp? Anyway, that's what we've got. I can tag that 1701 through church, that's fine, but I just cannot get the computer to see this thing yet. I'll just fiddle with it, fiddle with it, fiddle with it. Anyway, all I've got is just a few channels manual. This is KJ7PSD back to you. Dan, go ahead. B-load number 7, Papa Sierra Tango, Mr. Chairman, Chairman with a C. I love that, man. You know what, it's divine to stand alone. It's great to stand in the crowd, brother, but you know what, it's even better to stand out there by yourself. That's a great spelling. I know you didn't dig it, your folks probably did, but hey, I love that. That's fantastic. And as far as programming, I will tell you that a buddy that I was just speaking to, Ken Onale, he, long story short, a while back, he said he was gonna get in trouble with the M1701. He wanted me to, he wanted to know, hey Dan, you want me to get you one and you can just pay me for it. Well, that's what I did. And it came pre-programmed with the open GD77, and I will tell you that my buddy, my buddy Jake is much more tech-minded than I am. So he programmed, you know, a few rooms in here and all this and that and he brought it over to me. And he showed me how to use this thing. If it wasn't for Jake, I wouldn't be out here, out here having so much fun talking all over the states and all over the world, U.S. territories. I will tell you, Kevin H. here is 62, 62 years old. Got my technician class in 94, upgraded to general in 2007. And here I sit as a general. I'm hoping maybe one of these days I can get an extra. But it just ain't gonna happen now, but you know what, like you my friend, I'm limited. I'm limited to indoor antennas. For HF I use the ICOM 718. And right now I can work the 10 through 20 meter single-side band. I think there's something matching up with my MFJ 1621 portable antenna. I think that that robo-reduction tuning grower is probably getting a little oxidation on it. The MFJ 1621, I can use a inter-box with a band selector switch and a 50-point telescopic width. It usually does real good for me. I got some awards up here. You know what, I got my ARL, WAS, I got my ARU, worked all continents. Recently I got my TRZ DX World award, which is the equivalent of the ARRL DXCC and a few others. You know, I love to get out there and work the special events. The most recent special event that I worked was November 7 Charlie Navajo Code Talkers. So we'll get it back to you Kevin. KK7, PSB N9, WFT back to you. This is repeater station Kilo Kilo 7 November 7 November 7. Yeah Roger, N9, WFT, this is KK7, PSB. You know, it's interesting. First of all, you're just a young man. I'm 74. I won the draft lottery back during Vietnam. Sell me water, everyone of my life. Did two things for me. Gave the RFSA troop in the military and took me a bulk lottery ticket. But anyway, before they could finish drafting me, I ran down and joined the Air Force. They trained me electronically. I actually fixed radios in the Air Force. JWM 2As, a whole bunch of other stuff that some of which I told you I'd have to kill you. So anyway, we did all kinds of things back then. But I never bothered to get a hand license because I didn't want to learn code. I was a maintenance guy. I was not an operator. So the only operations I did were radio checks to make sure the darn thing worked. And that sort of thing. And that's about it. But a couple years ago or so, I finally decided to go ahead and get a hand license. And because of the background, I just went ahead and pressed it all the way to extra. So I got the extra and hit all the frequencies. And so that's good. And it doesn't mean I know what I'm doing. It just means I can talk on any frequency. So any way, details, details, you keep learning. And I was playing with the FDA a couple weeks ago. And got that thing up and running a little bit. That was kind of fun. So just a few little odds and ends like that that I'm doing when I get a chance. But this isn't my only hobby. And so I do a lot of things. A couple months ago I was scuba diving in Costa Rica. And last week I was visiting out on the west coast. Got kids and grandkids that live on the Washington side of the Columbia River down by Portland. And great grandkids there as well. So we were down there and wandered off to the coast for a day or so. And you know, etcetera, etcetera, all that stuff. So, bottom line, just kind of do a lot of different things. I golf with my kids. I fly fish with my kids. And we camp and hike and all that kind of stuff. Yellowstone is only about five hours from here. We usually get up there about three, four times a year because this is our close. Go up on a weekend really. And we only got one so far this year. But sorry. Sorry.