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Jay Aho (N8QYQ) came back to ham radio after 20 years away and, about a year later, had an APRS digipeater and a Winlink gateway running 210 feet up on the Detroit Masonic Temple. In this episode he tells James (K8JKU), Jim (N8JRD) and Rory (W8KNX) how it happened: a childhood friend who happens to manage the building, trustees who said yes to emergency communications, and a whole lot of learning along the way.

Jay explains why he picked a low-gain Diamond X30 and 30 watts instead of blasting the region, why the site runs as a WIDE1-1 fill-in digipeater to be additive to the network rather than competitive, and how it now shows 93 miles of coverage on aprs.fi. He gets into the build itself, a Raspberry Pi 4 running Dire Wolf for APRS and a hardened Windows mini PC for VARA FM Winlink, each feeding a Yaesu FTM-3100 at 30 watts, plus watchdogs, auto-boot after a power loss, remote access, LiFePO4 battery backup, and the surprisingly easy grounding story. He also introduces Detroit Never Goes Silent, a lobby exhibit where visitors scan a QR code and receive an email that traveled over radio, and talks about the effort to fund an ARPSC station at Detroit's Emergency Operations Center.

Before the interview, the crew covers Jason KN4AL's 1000th POTA activation, Activate All RI 2026, the new POTA website beta, building shack dashboards with Claude Code, and everything they've learned about the Icom IC-7110 since Tokyo Ham Fair.

Topics in this episode:
Icom IC-7110 specs, pricing and release speculation
Activate All RI 2026, September 11-13
The new POTA website beta at next.pota.app
Shack dashboards built with Claude Code
Jay N8QYQ's Detroit APRS digipeater and Winlink gateway
Diamond X30, WIDE1-1 fill-in and 93 miles of coverage
Raspberry Pi 4, Dire Wolf, VARA FM and a hardened Windows mini PC
Detroit Never Goes Silent and the Detroit EOC station

Don't miss a single episode! Follow the Everyday Ham Podcast on your favorite podcast platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and more) and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Short show intro audio clip

Short outro audio clip

The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.

Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/

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QSL is one of the most used words on the air and one of the least understood. When Jim asked what it actually stands for, all three of us stopped cold, so we spent an episode getting it right.

James (K8JKU), Jim (N8JRD) and Rory (W8KNX) work through what QSL really means, why keeping a log and confirming a contact are two different things, and how to navigate paper cards, QRZ Logbook, ARRL Logbook of the World and Club Log without drowning in it. Rory tells the story of the operator from Oregon who wrote him a letter after waiting 42 years to work one rare Michigan county, and makes the case that refusing to confirm cheats somebody else out of the state, grid or county they have been chasing. James walks through his own workflow honestly, cumbersome parts included, and Rory does the same. If you are new to HF and have not started logging yet, this is the foundation nobody hands you.

Before the main topic, Rory puts money down on the Icom ID-5200A and defends the price, Icom teases the X-026 ahead of HAM Fair 2026, Kenwood's TM-D750A firms up for September, and James argues the MacBook Neo is the best portable ham radio laptop you can buy right now.

In this episode:
Icom ID-5200A pre-order and the $999.95 question
The Icom X-026 teaser and HAM Fair 2026
Kenwood TM-D750A, September and day-one APRS
The MacBook Neo as a portable ham radio laptop
A new-in-box Alinco DJ-C5 for $85
Xiegu G7250, remote operating and 100 meters of Ethernet
What QSL actually means, and why logging is not QSLing
Paper cards, QRZ, Logbook of the World and Club Log
Our real QSLing workflows, start to finish
Ohio and Hawaii QSO Parties, August 22

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HhhoVukJI3s

Don't miss a single episode! Follow the Everyday Ham Podcast on your favorite podcast platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and more) and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Short show intro audio clip

Short outro audio clip

The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.

Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when a club stops treating Field Day like an endurance contest and starts treating it like a neighborhood open house? In this episode, James (K8JKU), Jim (N8JRD), and Rory (W8KNX) unpack the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club's reinvented Field Day, a community-first event in the middle of town with big printed signs at every antenna, a Get On The Air station, and newcomers like Cruz (KF8GNL) making their first HF contacts. The club nearly doubled last year's score with 1,193 contacts across three stations, but the real win was the dog walkers, museum visitors, and first-timers who stopped to see what ham radio is all about.

Before that, the crew recaps chasing the 13 Colonies Special Event through a wild solar storm, including a last-minute D-Star scramble to bag the Great Britain bonus station. They also give an honest, no-hype first look at the Buddipole BuddiHEX hex beam, cold solder joint and all, and break down the brewing showdown between the Icom ID-5200 and Kenwood TM-D750A mobile radios.

Topics in this episode:
13 Colonies Special Event and rough band conditions
Monroe Ham Swap finds
Reinventing Field Day around community
Getting new operators on the air
Buddipole BuddiHEX first impressions
Icom ID-5200 vs Kenwood TM-D750A

Don't miss a single episode! Follow the Everyday Ham Podcast on your favorite podcast platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and more) and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Short show intro audio clip

Short outro audio clip

The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.

Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/