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0	8160	Hey, I'm Shannon here at DEF CON 30 and I'm here at the Ham Radio Village with Eric and Justin to chat about what's going on this weekend.
8360	15400	Personally, I am excited because I would like to introduce myself with my Ham radio license call sign, which is KM6FPP.
15400	17700	So, hello. What's yours?
18060	20000	I'm AI0J.
20020	21760	And I'm NHFCC.
21820	23140	Nice, nice to meet you.
23140	24220	Nice to meet you.
24220	28020	So, there's a lot going on with the Ham Radio Village this weekend.
28020	31760	And I would love to kind of get an overview of the contest that you're doing.
31760	35600	And I know you're doing exams, probably talks as well.
35700	37980	So, let's go ahead and get started with the talks.
37980	40640	What's some really interesting talks that are going on?
40680	43860	Yeah, we get a great lineup for this whole weekend.
43860	46000	You know, we have a bunch of very different topics.
46000	48360	Some sort of geared, you know, towards introduction.
48360	49720	You know, okay, I have my license.
49720	50880	What do I do with that?
50880	55540	As well as some more, you know, very much more into the DEF CON spirit.
55540	57660	You know, hacking Ham Radio software.
57660	57960	Nice.
57960	60140	I think it's a 1200 baud over packet radio.
60140	60720	Wait, what?
60720	63840	Which probably hasn't been seen at DEF CON since, you know, DEF CON 1 or 2.
63840	67660	I mean, okay, so I have a Baofeng, and I know that thing runs on really old software.
67660	71460	So, are we talking about, like, hacking software for radios?
71460	72820	Yeah, hacking software for radios.
72820	73080	Yeah.
73080	75380	A lot of software is written for, you know, originally XP.
75380	77160	And a lot of people still run Windows XP.
77160	77720	Oh, no.
78300	80740	And I think there's been a few patches since then.
81340	83180	You know nobody's patching this.
83180	83860	Yeah, no.
84060	85100	Oh, my God, no.
85220	86020	That's amazing.
86020	87320	I can't wait to see that.
87320	89280	And you have other talks going on as well?
89460	91200	Yeah, we have all sorts of different talks.
91200	95040	Like I said, we have some panels, you know, sort of, like, got my license, what do I do now?
95700	101440	A couple of other different areas all about, you know, exploring different, you know, sort of areas of Ham Radio.
101440	102700	It's a pretty wide field.
102700	103600	Oh, absolutely.
103940	106560	And we also have a contest going on.
106740	107580	Yeah, we actually have...
107580	108220	Fox Hunt.
108220	109640	Yeah, two contests really in the village.
109640	112480	So we have our Fox Hunt contest.
112480	113880	You know, it's a Ham Radio geared Fox Hunt.
113880	117660	It's really designed to be very easy to do even with, you know, no prior knowledge.
117660	117900	Yeah.
117900	122360	And you can, you know, just get a little antenna and just walk around and try to find the fox.
122860	124560	So we encourage people to come and try that.
124560	128380	And I think there's a special patch or badge or something for that if they solve that.
128380	128880	Very cool.
128880	131340	And then the Ham Radio exams we're offering all weekend.
131340	138560	So people can come and get licensed, you know, for the U.S. as well as Canada and take their exams here.
138560	139860	They count that as a contest.
139860	141420	So it's a contest with the government, right?
141420	142640	Yeah, absolutely.
142660	152400	Now, as somebody who has gotten into Ham Radio, one of the hardest parts for me was kind of getting over that entry level requirement and then figuring out where to go from there.
152400	159960	So for somebody that's new to Ham Radio and really wants to get into it, is this a place that they could go and kind of understand a little bit more?
160200	160840	Yeah, absolutely.
160840	167440	We really try to gear the village to be open to everyone, whether you know absolutely nothing about Ham Radio, except that, you know, maybe your grandpa did it, you know, when you were young.
168320	175860	Or, you know, you're a seasoned inventory operator and there's maybe some new piece of equipment or something new that you just want to sort of discover more about.
176140	181040	So we're going to have demos and workshops kind of running throughout the weekend, you know, just to play and experiment.
181060	184440	And, you know, people can just stop by and chat and really just kind of get their hands on.
184440	188140	You're going to have any antennas set up so I can actually get on the radio?
188140	193260	Yeah, we're hoping to have a remote station so we can connect that. And unfortunately, these hotels are built to be big Faraday cages.
193260	194460	Oh my gosh, they totally are.
194460	196960	It looks a little challenging, but we're going to do the best we can.
196960	201580	We actually hope to actually even do some live operating from the outside patio here in the Flamingo.
201580	202300	Very cool.
202300	206120	You know, as well as just do some remote stuff over the internet and just have some demos inside the village.
206120	209240	I can't wait to see it. Now, Justin, you've been kind of quiet over there.
210080	213100	What's your favorite part? What's going on with you with the Ham Radio Village?
213100	217540	I guess my favorite part of my mission and the hobby has been getting others into the hobby itself.
217540	223480	It's done so much for me. Joining the Ham Radio Village, scholarships, career opportunity. It's been fantastic.
223480	228160	So my goal is to get others into the hobby. Like you mentioned, it sometimes seems like it's hard to get into.
228160	236280	Yeah, totally. I feel like unless you have an Elmer, it's kind of hard to understand where to go after reading the main book about the exams.
236280	241400	Exactly. Having mentors is seemingly a big part of it. We're fortunate because we're mainly an online group.
241400	247900	We meet once a year at DEF CON, but we have a Discord server website, hamvillage.org, and we all help each other out.
247900	252480	So a lot of our stuff is geared towards getting people on the air, just like our exams. It's free.
252480	256500	Anyone can come in and take the exam. They can take as many retakes as long as we're open.
256660	260360	So we're here to get everyone on the air as much as possible.
260360	264280	Very cool. Is there anything that we didn't touch base on that you would like to mention?
264440	269160	Not much. I would just say come and try and do the license exam. It's free.
269160	275720	Even if you've never studied and you just want to give it a shot, now is the time. Why not now?
275860	285440	The air is very active here at DEF CON. 14658 MHz is the con-ham frequency. Everyone listens in on it.
285440	291780	I've heard some in my earpiece while we've been talking. It's quite an active frequency to learn about what's going on.
291820	295540	I honestly agree with you when it comes to getting into ham radio.
295540	303180	The first time I took my exam, I failed. And I'm okay with saying that because I sat right there in my seat. I retook it, and I did great.
303180	308060	You never know what questions you're going to get on the exam, and you can always retake the exam.
308240	312120	That was a really exhilarating and really exciting process.
312620	319260	We actually had someone a couple years ago when we were in Caesars. We were just doing the ham exams that year.
319260	324740	We had someone that was very determined to get their license, and they failed, and then they failed again, and they failed again.
324740	330520	I think they failed six or seven times, and they sat out in the hallway, and they would not give up, and they studied, and they eventually passed.
330520	335720	I mean, anyone can do it, right? It's not rocket science for the entry-level exam at all.
336080	344560	It's a fun hobby, and the more people that get into it, especially the crowd at DEF CON, is much less traditional than the traditional crowd.
344640	348440	So it's really nice to get that different exposure and just broaden the hobby.
348440	354420	I agree. Well, I appreciate that you're both here, and ham radio is one of the things that really, really got me into hacking.
354420	360860	So thank you for all you do. I'm so happy that I was able to talk to you today, and I'm definitely going to check out the Village over the weekend.
360860	361840	All right. Thank you.