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TGIF Net Transcript 2025-09-26
DIR By: VE3RD
Date: September 27, 2025, 8:33 am
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[center]TGIF Net Transcript 2025-09-26[/center]
Preamble
from the sandy beaches of the Outer Banks of North Carolina
where tonight we've decided to add in rain thunder and lightning
welcome to the TGIF radio net for Friday September 26th 2025
Steve my call sign is W2SHR and I have the privilege of filling
in tonight for Robert Bresman, K4WZV, the chief engineer and the
mastermind behind the TGIF DMR amateur radio network. We meet
every Friday night at 8 30 p.m. Eastern Time in talk group 31665
also known as the mothership to talk about a chosen topic and
anything else we find that is related to amateur radio. Tonight
let's discuss FT8 and other digital modes. Do you use them? Are
they relevant to amateur radio? Emergency traffic will be
indicated by a triple break and will be accepted at any time
during the net. Please remember that we are a directed net so
please only transmit when you are directed to by the net control
station and when you check in please also give me your call sign
phonetically. I would log in as whiskey to Sierra Hotel Romeo
W2SHR. Now let's hear from stations who might have announcements
news or important information for anyone on the net. If you have
that information would you please key up now? Hearing nothing
I'm gonna throw in a couple things just for the heck of it. Last
night I was directing a two meter net here locally and for those
of us on the East Coast and especially the southern part of the
East Coast there is a website called tropicalkidbits.com that's
tropicalkidbits.com. I have been told that it is one of the best
places to go for information about the lovely hurricanes that
are headed our direction and and hopefully will not join
together and make our lives miserable. Pausing for a break.
Second announcement is going to come from an email that I got
while I was preparing for the net tonight. ARRL sent out an
email that is about a topic I have heard many many times on this
talk group. They are trying to get Congress to make sure that
people who live in HOAs have the abilities they need to be
amateur radio operators. The freedom to put up antennas and
everything else. If you did not get the email you can simply go
to www.arrl.org/HOA That will take you to a place where you can
send a letter to Congress asking them to please give us the
freedoms and the rights that everybody else has. Again, pausing
just one second. I've monopolized things. Anybody second
thoughts on announcements, news, or important information that
we need? Key up now.
Check-ins
--- Code ---
Call Name State Call Name
State Call Name State
WY2S Thomas Unknown N6CZE Gary
Unknown N4NMN Walt Unknown
N9NJS Brent Unknown WB3IHY Jill
Unknown WB3GCK Craig Unknown
WB8MVU Kim Unknown NT9Q Gary
Unknown N9FEH Chester Unknown
K7DCE Doug Unknown K2OZ Dan
Unknown KA7DLB Sharon Unknown
K8III Bruce Unknown KM9Q Scott
Unknown KD9ITO Kerry Unknown
WC7V Kerry Unknown KB3JQQ Scott
Unknown KV9Q Michael Unknown
KE9PLC Paul Unknown KE0DL David
Unknown KB8IWO Vernon Unknown
KE8APO Unknown Unknown KF5WFA George
Unknown N3TJK Timothy Unknown
K8LR Robert Unknown N8MME David
Unknown K8WF William Unknown
WD8KB Rodney Unknown WA1WQC David
Unknown KG5JBC Jerry Unknown
KD2CH Mark New York N1XQX Dennis
Unknown K1WMP William Unknown
W2SHR Steve North Carolina KW0Z Unknown
Unknown VE3RD Phil Ontario
KD2VXU Nicholas Unknown W1GSK Glenn
Maine K4WZV Robert Unknown
K5GU Leland Unknown N4ZWR Simon
Unknown KD4BJA Kirk Unknown
NG5N Jerry Unknown N2ISP Charles
Unknown KF5KHS Michael Unknown
KC8USA Fred Unknown KD8CIA Jeff
Unknown W2NEE Jeff Unknown
KC2UKB Eric Unknown K8NR Neil
Unknown WD8HGO Paul Unknown
N9DYO Herbert Indiana KB8KS Mike
Unknown KB9LIQ Unknown Unknown
KB8PFL Edward Unknown KE2KFL Angel
Puerto Rico K9PMR Richard Unknown
KB1PZS Unknown Unknown
--- End Code ---
TGIF Trading Post
No entries in the transcript for TGIF Trading Post.
Discussion
[*]KE2KL: Thank you very much. Well, I don't know about all the
other forms of communication, but between Brandmeister and TTIF,
TTIF opened up a lot for me. I got to meet new people, new
friends, get to know a different format of communication, which
at that time I did not know existed. So to me it's something
new, and every time I come up on the frequencies and the net, I
read somebody new. So I guess that's what it does to me. I don't
know about all the other ones. I mean, I probably can get there
eventually. But right now I'm satisfied with these two nets,
especially TTIF. It gives me a lot. Every time I go into the
network, it's a learning process for me, and a lot of different
types of people, different radios, different forms of
communication, different subjects. So I'm glad I'm here. That's
my experience. This is K2K. Thank you.
[*]K4WZV: Good evening, Stephen and everybody on the net doing a
fantastic job. And, yeah, just a couple things on the digital
modes, FT8. It's a great learning deal, a lot of different
aspects of it. You can learn different things, how it works with
your computer and just configuration of things. It's really good
things to learn. It brings up all different aspects of the
hobby. For example, if you're using FT8, then all the stations
reporting you all over the world using, like, PSKK Reporter
Program and stuff like that. So it's just endless. It's just
another aspect of the hobby, and I think everybody should at
least dive into it for a little while and see what it has to
offer there. And also you can work stations, like I'm talking to
you right now, and I can work FT8 at the same time. You can
multitask and make several contacts. That's all I got. Back to
NetControl.
[*]WB3IHY: Good evening to the Net. Hello, TGIF. As far as the
digital mode, I do FT8, and it's what I call Little Brother FT4,
which was meant as a contesting -- or to be a contesting mode,
but now people have picked it up and are using it along with
FT8. I do both modes. I find that I do more FT8 when I have
plenty of solar power to -- because the transmissions are
longer, but when I'm short on solar power, FT4 is quicker and
doesn't use as much battery power. And what I like about it is,
as Robert had mentioned, you can see -- you can make contacts,
first of all, with the mode way, way below the noise level where
you can't even hear the signal. You can pick it up. Low power,
low signal, you know, noisy signals, you know, you can still
make contacts. And some of the contacts that you make are just
phenomenal. I've made my longest ham radio contact ever using
FT8. I think it was the long path to Australia, I believe. That
was my longest contact. I have the mileage someplace, but --
and, you know, every time -- for the longest time, every night I
was going up and talking to my wife and announcing a new country
that I'd made contact with. And it is a real geography lesson
because, you know, there are the names of countries that pop up,
some are new, some are old, some I've never heard. And, you
know, it's constantly going to the Internet and saying, wow, I
wonder where that is. And it's just a fantastic -- if you want
to do, you know, longer CUSOs, keyboard CUSOs, there's always
JSE, which uses the FT8 protocol, and you can actually do
keyboard-to-keyboard and have long, rag-to conversations with
people using the mode. That, I think, is fantastic. So if you
like FT4 and FT8, try JSE. You'll like that, too. If you don’t
like that, there will be a B3 or H4.
[*]KB1PZS: Yeah, I was just -- I was wondering if you can give
me a radio check on this RT3S. It's supposed to be the exact
same radio as the DM-UV380. And then after you come back, I got
some comments on FT8 and JSA. [Net Control: You are sounded
fine. Go ahead with your comments.] All right. You're like the
second person I talked to on this radio, so thanks for that.
And, yeah, I've never actually done FT8, but I was very into
PSK31. I really love that mode. And it seems like nobody's using
it anymore. Everybody's on FT8. No, really, I'm kind of turned
off by the FT8 because it's kind of like automated, just
call/sign/exchange, and it's on the next and pretty much
operates on its own. I saw a pretty good meme. The guy's
snoring, sleeping, and he's saying -- the caption says, "Quiet,
I'm working FT8." He's sleeping. That was a good one. But JSA,
that sounds really interesting. It sounds more like PSK31 the
way I remember it. So I really want to try that mode, but just
haven't gotten around to getting that all set up. I do have one
of those -- I actually made my own interface back in the day
when I used to do PSK31. I've got a homebrew deal with isolation
transformer so there's no ground loops.
Acknowledgements
Well, I want to recognize some special people tonight that are
in our radio family. We always hold a special place in our
hearts for the founder of the DMR network, Mitch Savage, EA7KBO,
who sadly passed away. He started this TGIF radio net with a
single Raspberry Pi. He gave us the NXIVM screen on TGIF MMDVM
hotspots and spent countless hours helping operators with
technical questions. We all benefit daily because of Mitch's
work and his legacy and his spirit live on every day across the
entire TGIF DMR network. I want to give props to Ty Weaver, too,
KG5RKI. Ty is the coding genius behind TGIF. He makes sure
everything runs smoothly and it's because of his hard work that
we can stay on the air with the amazing reliability that we do
have. We can't forget Andy Nielsen, G7LRR. He's Ty's right-hand
man and the mastermind behind our dashboard. He keeps the DMR
network running smoothly, and we're lucky to have him on the
team, that's for sure. Let's also give credit to Glenn Allison,
N3MEL. He created our international forum page, even though he's
retired now. His work on starting the forum will be remembered
and appreciated always. Love timing out. Our forum management
team is amazing. Mark Realms, AD2CH, Doug Smith, KE5CDK, and Joe
Garver. I think we know him, WB3IHY. These operators keep our
forum running smoothly by answering questions and guiding
newcomers. Many thanks to each of you from everybody here at
TGIF network. James Vallee, KF6S, is now a silent key, but he
left us an incredible legacy. He worked with Mitch on the Nexian
screen hotspot, which set new standards for DMR radio. He helped
develop PyStar for the Red XA board during the Raspberry Pi
shortage and showed his amazing technical skills. This is what I
call my brothers to the north. We have to thank Vic Lowen,
VE3JAR, for his amazing TGIF documentation, and Phil Thompson,
VE3RD, for his work on the hotspot programming and the net
recordings, and for being the conservator and developer of the
TGIF Nexian screen hotspots. Remember, if you want to hear this
or past TGIF amateur radio recordings, you can go to
TGIF.network. Select the forum tab on the left side menu, scroll
down to navigate to TGIF Friday Night Net Recording Index, and
you'll find what you need. Thank you to Phil, VE3RD, for making
these recordings possible for us. And everybody, let's give a
big thanks to the big guy, Robert Bretzman, K4WZV. As the chief
engineer of the network, he brings us together 24/7/365. Robert,
many thanks for bringing us together tonight and for keeping us
together all of the time.
That's wonderful to hear. The fact that I'm even talking about
FT8 tonight is a little funny because when my Elmer showed it to
me the first time, quite honestly, I looked at him and said,
"What the heck is that? Why are you doing that?" Well, let's
see. K4WZV, I know you chimed in there too. What have you got
for us, sir? [After K4WZV's comments] Thank you, Robert. I know
this afternoon while I was talking to you, I was doing FT8 and
got a couple contacts out of Europe this afternoon, and of all
things, 30 meters. But it makes me actually go around and
experiment in some places that I haven't before, that's for
sure. I'm trying to keep everybody in order here, and I'm trying
to think, Joe, WB3IHY, were you the next one who wanted to
speak? I think it was me, KB1PZS. WB3IHY. [After WB3IHY's
comments] Bill, thank you so much. I know in the course of my
studying, the concept of Whisper came out. And I know people
don't really, I don't think, use it that much. But it was one of
those things I just sort of thought, hey, cool name, I'm going
to try it. It is amazing. You go even longer. And that time when
you look on the map and, you know, you go to PSK Reporter and
you look and you throw Whisper up there and you're like, wait a
second, where's this line going? It's going to Antarctica. I was
heard in Antarctica. It's a really, really crazy feeling. My
apologies to KB1PZS. You are up. I normally can keep track of
what's in line. I'm operating a new system tonight. It's
working, but it's a working product for us. Please give us your
thoughts.
Close
This thing is unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's one of the
most amazing things I've ever seen. Don't forget, everyone, that
your ideas are what help shape this net. If you have suggestions
for future topics or activities, let us know. There are four of
us who, I think I can safely say, struggle when our time comes
up for a topic that is going to keep you happy and informed. And
we definitely would love your input. Together, we keep this
Radio Net fun, informative, and enjoyable for everybody. I want
to thank you for joining us tonight on this Radio Net. My name
is Steve, call sign W2SHR, signing off from the Outer Banks of
North Carolina. I hope you'll join us again next week for
another TGAF Radio Net on Friday night at 830 Eastern on Talk
Group 31665. This is the end of our Net for tonight, Friday,
September 26, 2025. Let's turn the mothership Talk Group 31665
back for worldwide amateur use. And always remember, 73 to all,
and thank God it's Friday. W2SHR closing.
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