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6990	12870	Okay, it's time for the Q&A. Let's get some questions up there.
14030	22010	I got Pete here in Discord, so let's give a hand to Pete, get some questions going.
22810	27370	Pete, do you got your webcam on there?
28610	33910	Yeah, I'm getting a repeat of your voice about three, four seconds.
36210	39790	Are you watching the stream live in the background?
40750	42230	Yes, I should not.
43550	47630	Correct, go ahead and mute that.
51820	52900	Okie dokie.
53360	56880	Okay, now that we got that, looks like we got a question.
56920	62430	What measurements or experiments were done to evaluate the RF hash of the boost converter?
64850	70370	It wasn't very sophisticated when I first got it, which is no longer, by the way,
70370	75350	no longer obtainable at that amperage. It's a shame the ham who built that died.
75350	87330	But anyway, I just had it connected to a battery in my basement, and I did a before and after,
87330	94670	so I had the radio running with it and without it before I started mounting it.
94670	98450	And it's a great question because it brings up a larger point that
99170	104170	most regulators, power supplies, anything that has to do with changing voltage,
104170	108670	they're almost all a terrible, terrible problem with RF hash.
108670	113830	So you have to assume that components like that are bad until proven good.
113830	116930	So great question, a great thing to watch out for whenever you're
116930	121970	doing anything with power supplies or changing voltages.
123590	127170	Very nice. We got another question from Twitch here.
127950	131610	Let's see. ArmorDKrabs says, thanks so much for sharing.
131610	136730	Curious if you worry about security of the van, what was the microwave rack for?
139450	143550	Sounds like two different questions. So the security of the van,
143550	148770	you mean physical security? I am a little worried about it.
148770	153910	I should have better protection for it. Now, when it's stored long term,
153910	159130	it's in a garage that's with cars that are much, much more expensive than this van is
159710	163650	for car collectors. So I've got good security when it's stored.
163650	172670	But yeah, I am a little worried about it when it's parked, say, at a hotel or even at home.
172670	175590	So I don't have a good answer for that. And I should have a better answer.
175590	181650	The microwave rack, that was just by chance that a guy in our club was
182470	186730	retired from roving himself and sold me his entire collection of microwave vans.
186730	189730	So I wanted to get into microwaves at some point.
189990	194770	And I just took that opportunity, which happens a lot in radio, is
196170	200750	you have equipment available now that you think you might use in the future.
200750	205970	It's had a great price. And hey, get it now. You might save hundreds, or in this case,
205970	208950	thousands of dollars in the future. I mean, that rack that I showed with the
208950	214930	microwave capabilities, if I got new equipment there, you're looking at at least $15,000.
214970	220250	And I didn't pay anything like that. I didn't pay five figures for that equipment.
220250	226750	So it's not on the air yet, but it's there and ready to go when I get the lower bands ready.
228170	232390	Very good. We got another question from Dead Pixel in Discord.
232470	236290	How do you deal with your van's total payload weight? Yeah, it must be heavy.
236290	240050	Are you over with all that equipment?
242550	250010	No, the total payload rate, there's a lot of special things about this van. It's a package
250010	255650	that goes with things like TV vans. They also have a lot in common with ambulances. Ambulances have a
255650	264530	lot of heavy equipment with AC requirements. So I don't know what the number is. I think it's well
264530	274350	over 9,000 pounds. And I assume that even with my heavy batteries, that the whole van weighed a lot
274350	280030	less than it did when it was used as a TV van. Although I have to admit that engineering-wise,
280030	285190	I didn't compare the weights or even measure how heavy it was. I made a guess when I registered
285190	291390	the van and I made a guess at 6,000 pounds. I think it's below that though. So good question,
291390	297570	but I don't have a really good satisfying answer. Yeah, it's definitely got to be a beefy van, right?
297570	305370	So we got another question in Discord. Testing2 asks, weather seals and grommets and water intrusion.
306810	313310	On an old van, was the rubber all crumbling? How much of that did you need to refurbish to make the
313310	321490	old ship seaworthy again? No, I didn't have to replace anything yet. There was some water
321490	328950	infiltration through the connection on the roof to the satellite antenna real early in the
328950	334970	presentation. I showed my buddy lifting that satellite antenna off. So that had some water
334970	342510	infiltration on it and I just put a four or three and a half inch cover on it and it hadn't
342510	350570	been a problem since then. As far as the seals for other cables or even the doors, the only
351130	356670	moderate problem was some of the seals for the doors were coming off, but they weren't dried out
356670	361890	so I didn't have a real problem there. Now I haven't done a lot of cables that run to the
361890	368770	outside, especially through the roof, so that is a concern when I do start wiring it. That's
368770	375070	one thing I should say that I'm not using a lot of. I got a screwdriver antenna on the back for HF,
375570	379170	but I haven't done a lot of work with getting the VHF antennas out that
379810	384770	obviously involve a lot more cables and ones that run through the roof instead of the
384770	393090	floor. So I do have to watch out for that. Very good. Another question from Twitch here.
393790	398830	Calvingluck asks, those are such densely packed racks. Are you able to get access
398830	404490	to most of the connections without fully disassembling it? Yeah, luckily,
405650	410530	you know, I'm going to take a step back. Part of what I wanted to do was make a little video
410530	416590	tour of the van, but I ran out of time with the tropical storm that ran up the east coast.
416590	423550	That's my excuse. It's a good excuse. It's true. Anyway, it's really good accessibility to the
423550	434130	back of the rack. So the first three racks that are together, there's a back door where you can
434130	439690	get access to the AC panel that is displayed and the box for the generator. And there's like a
439690	446310	storage area back there. So it's pretty good accessibility. I think the only problem I has
446310	451910	in the upper side of the, I guess it would be the driver's side and rack number three, it's hard to
451910	458290	get access to the screws to put the rack equipment in that I mount from the rear. But other than
458290	463270	that, it's pretty accessible. Now, obviously, if there's interior connections that I have to fix,
463270	467950	the racks have to come out, or maybe at least the racks on top have to come out.
468110	474450	Pretty good accessibility on both the front and the back. That's good. Nothing like taking a full
474450	480150	day to take stuff apart just because you forgot something. Oh yeah. Okay, we got another question
480150	489830	in Discord from Bunzel. In addition to the fan, do you have anything else for airflow or
489830	496390	cooling to prevent the hardware from overheating? No, and I do worry about that because it gets
496390	503090	pretty darn hot in the van. It gets less hot than it did in my minivan because there's less glass to
503090	510590	let sunlight through. I do have one other fan that I put in the back. So I open the back door
510590	516230	when it's particularly hot. I open the back door and I have a fan that's powered with 12 volts to
516230	522210	get a little bit of airflow in. But I'm kind of surprised at how hot it's been that none of the
522210	529010	equipment has failed so far just because of heat. And I don't know what to say. They work better
529010	533990	than I would have expected, than I have any right to expect. There are opportunities, physical
533990	542030	opportunities in the back I would suppose to get even more fans going. But so far it has been an
542030	551170	issue and I've activated on HF at least up to like an air temperature of 95 degrees outside. So far
551170	557090	so good. That's a great point though, a great question. And I don't know if you remember at
557090	563170	the beginning of the presentation I emphasized that I can't have the van engine on. I can't have
563170	569810	the AC system on because of RF hash. So while I'm operating I can't have any air conditioning on as
569810	576370	much as I would like to. Oh wow, that's a bummer. Yeah, especially if you came to DEF CON with that
576370	584290	thing. It would definitely be a sweaty situation. Someone's asking, are you going to do a video tour
584290	591470	of the van? I want to do this time but ran out of time. That would be nice. It would be especially
591470	597990	nice I think when I get antennas on it though because it's kind of limited to just the interior.
597990	603210	There's not too much to see. It'd be nice to see it in operation I suppose. But I'd like to
603210	608670	make a video when it's more exciting when I can show the pneumatic mast in operation and
608670	616170	the rotator rotating. I hope I'll do that someday. Very good. Do we have any other questions on
616170	623750	Twitch or Discord for Pete here? K-O-P-A-K on his ultimate van life van conversion.
630310	636510	I'm not seeing anything yet. We'll give him just a few more seconds to throw a question out.
645350	652530	Okay, looks like that's it for the Q&A. Well thanks Pete for the presentation. Maybe we'll see some
652530	661450	demos or some other content maybe next year at DEF CON. Oh boy, that would be great. I hope we
662150	667210	have an opportunity to get together live. And thanks for being a great host and holding my hand
667210	672410	through this 62 year old getting used to Discord and Twitch and all the other stuff at one time
672410	676830	was kind of overwhelming. And you guys did a great job. Thank you.
677250	687070	Thank you and we'll see everybody for the next presentation. Next up we have K-8-A-M-H with the
687070	695670	National Traffic System and Radiograms. So that will be coming up in about 20 minutes. So we'll
695670	701130	get going on that and we'll see you guys shortly. Thanks Pete. You're welcome.