Friend of the 'pod Josh KI6NAZ, from the little-known  @HamRadioCrashCourse  drops by the sofa to get nerdy... and share how he entered the SOTA-verse!

This episode covers Josh's disastrous first SOTA activation and Mark's theories on the importance of balancing technical, physical, and mental skills for success. Ara shows hardware for his nearly complete "Antennode" project, which uses Raspberry Pis and LoRa to automate antenna A/B testing and provide a scientific method for evaluating antenna performance without expensive equipment. Josh dives deep into the challenges of content creation, emphasizing the need for consistency over perfection. Finally, the whole team gets passionate about building sustainable ham club club leadership, and how to empower new members to take the initiative in gettin' stuff done!

As always, the Sofa was captained by Mark KD7DTS and Ara N6ARA, with Di KO6BTM running the studio system and Ormoo noshing on kibbles.

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__SHOW NOTES__

Josh KI6NAZ on YouTube:  @HamRadioCrashCourse 

Ara N6ARA on YouTube:  @N6ARAElectronics 

The N6ARA Store: https://n6ara.com/

Drink tasting: Elysian "Contact Haze"

__CHAPTERS__0:00 Welcome & beers

3:07 Josh's hot takes on AI

8:30 Josh's first (failed) SOTA, and need for "Intro to SOTA" days

30:27 Mark's principles of "SOTA Success"

36:07 The "Antennode" - antenna science!

1:02:13 Developing ham club leaders

1:17:19 Patreon questions! (YouTube... how does that work??)

1:45:34 Turning the tables - Josh's questions for Ara & Mark

__THANKS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS__

Umesh KK6TXI - outro music

Di KO6BTM - intro/outro graphics