Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations

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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/

Send us Fan Mail
Ep. 18 – Has Parks on the Air hit its peak? James (K8JKU), Jim (N8JRD), and Rory (W8KNX) debate the future of POTA, from its explosive growth to what the declining solar cycle means for portable operators, and whether the program is in its twilight or just entering its golden years.
The conversation comes fresh off the Third Annual Michigan POTA Meetup, where the guys spent a weekend camping, activating, and sharing campfire stories with about 70 POTA enthusiasts at Hartwick Pines State Park. They talk about what actually brings hams together, why community is the best part of this hobby, and how to find or start a meetup in your own area.
Also in this episode: the Everyday Ham merch store is officially live at everydayham.com, a Hamvention attendance stat correction, shout-outs to Penn (AC8XI) and Rob (N1RWJ), and around the shack updates from all three hosts.
Learn more about the meetup at michiganpotameetup.com, and if you love POTA, consider donating at parksontheair.com.
Don't miss a single episode! Follow the Everyday Ham Podcast on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to our YouTube channel at @EverydayHam.
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
A concept radio with "almost nothing" on display managed to dominate Hamvention 2026, and we can't stop talking about what that means for the future of ham radio. We're fresh back from Dayton, a little punchy, and ready to unpack the best conversations we had with vendors, makers, and listeners who recognized our voices across the noise of the fairgrounds. If you care about where mobile rigs, repeaters, and digital features are headed next, this recap is loaded with real impressions and honest skepticism.
We dig into the biggest manufacturer moments first: Yaesu's DR-3 repeater direction and the next steps for System Fusion, Kenwood's long-awaited TM-D750A progress and why "ship it later" can be the right call when firmware isn't ready, and Icom's X-026 concept strategy that had people cheering, arguing, and even storming away. We debate whether asking the community for feedback is a bold move or a frustrating tease, and why market size, R&D timelines, and expectations at Hamvention don't always align.
Then we get practical with gear that feels closer to daily use, especially the Icom ID-5200. We talk interface upgrades, smart mobile touches like auto-dimming, and the big headline that grabbed our attention: native APRS encode and decode via firmware update. We also zoom out to the rest of the show, from Four Days in May and small vendor innovation to CW key makers, swap meet pricing, and what the flea market "junk scale" looked like this year.
If you like this kind of grounded ham radio coverage, subscribe, share the show with a friend headed to their next hamfest, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then come hang out with us in Discord and drop your take: is the X-026 hype brilliant or annoying?
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/