June 2017

Can we just have a good time?

I've heard it before, "This isn't a hobby, its a service". Thats the mantra of the FCC and the reason they allotted the ham spectrum to us. But to the ham, we do it because its fun. With few exceptions thats the entire reason this hobby exists. Its fun to experiment, build stuff, test stuff, talk to friends, associate with others that see the world as we do, make new contacts and new friends. For a very few, its all about public service, but I imagine they love it or they wouldn't bother. For some, it all about the zombie apocalypse. some get a license some don't. For those guys you probably wont hear them on the bands as the radio is simply another prepping tool.

For still a smaller group, its also about sharing the ham radio experience as video creators. My journey as video creator began 30 years ago when I was a working still photographer. Back then there wasn't a youtube.com or any . com for that matter. There were gate keepers at all media outlets keeping the unwashed masses silent and invisible. The internet has literally unchained the gate to make it possible for anyone with a vision, a story or an idea to share it with the world. Now finally, 10 years after pioneers like K7AGE, KE0OG and the guys at Ham Nation first started using the internet to share their stories and love for the hobby, several more of us have joined the creator club.

I'm not going to bag on anyone for how they make their videos because quite honestly everyone has their own video ability, access to equipment, post production skills and most importantly a story to tell. I'm sure those early pioneers were constrained by the mainstream ham communities conventional thinking. What I mean by that is super intellectual, engineer, rocket scientist types who had typically dominated the hobby for the past 100 years or so. Fast forward to 2011 and enter guys like me, unrefined, working class dogs who like strip clubs, RV's, and fast cars. We started getting into the hobby for different reasons but none the less found it to be engaging and fun. Back to my point; Im a film maker who happens to be a ham. When I began this journey a little more than a year ago, I had watched many youtube videos and several ham related youtube videos. The over reaching theme I saw in the ham radio creator world was stuck on " power point presentation mode" While the videos had a story, the execution was often boring classroom fare. While guys like Dave Cassler had some brilliant production value and great topics, For me at least, it was still like watching a powerpoint presentation in a classroom.

Bob the film maker sat down one day and asked, can a video on something as technical and niche' as amateur radio be produced at a level that would appeal to everyone in the hobby? When I first made the decision to start this channel, I wanted to engage an audience. I wanted them to laugh, sit back and enjoy the experience of watching a show and maybe picking up a tidbit or two. More importantly, I wanted the view to want to come back for more. I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the best fit maker out there. But I'm trying to get there. I'm always pushing myself to bring more to the table each week. A lot of it most viewers don't even notice, but it adds to the total experience of the show. put enough of those little things together and you have an entertaining show.

If you have a comment or suggestion for show ideas, or something You think I can do better along with how to do it, send me an email at k6udaradio@gmail.com

So easy a girl can do it!!

To my patrons and my friends,
This week I bring total fun and frivolity. As a creator, I try my damnedest to put out videos that are entertaining to watch sometimes informative and different from everything else ham radio related. This week I opted for pure entertainment. MFJ was kind enough to send me this cobweb antenna over the winter and I struggled to think of an interesting way to present it without doing the run of the mill unboxing video. So I'm thinking to myself how do I show an assembly video without boring my audience to tears in five minutes. BAM!! Have your kid build it and show that even an untrained princess mechanic can figure it out. So here it is, enjoy.

Now, about my 7500 subscriber give away. I've decided that one of my patrons should get something. So heres the deal. there's currently four of you helping out and I'm giving away an antenna and now an openspot. one of those is going to a patron and one to another subscriber. I'll let you guys pick by vote which one goes to a patron. I'm thinking about doing something to do with an on air contact but I haven't figured out exactly how its going to work. Guys, I can't thank you enough for supporting the channel. The fact that your willing to put up your hard earned money means a lot more than the money does.

https://youtu.be/JXqCC6i639U

Tired of the same old unboxing videos

I'm tired of seeing boring unboxing videos, long drawn out videos of guys putting up antennas so I enlisted the help of these two to assemble an MFJ-1835 6 band cobweb. Yes, they did it all by themselves. I'm willing to take chances with my videos. So I asked Danielle and her friend Jenna to come over and make a video for me. The idea was to show how easy it is to unbox and assemble this MFJ-1835 Cobweb. After cracking open the box and seeing how many parts were involved, I started to have serious doubts about this project. After all, I know Danielle doesn't know a flathead from a phillips and I figured her friend would have roughly the same amount of mechanical skill. Boy was I wrong. They actually did a great job of putting my new antenna together. Thanks Girls.

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