YouTube channel feedback

Some of you may be aware that I’ve been recording my activations and posting videos on my YouTube channel. I’m after some feedback.

Now, let me make it clear that I’m not after fame and fortune, money, or going to ask you to buy me a beer or a latte, and I’m not selling anything on amazon. I’ve always filmed hobby stuff, since I could afford a camcorder. GoPro cameras make easier for me to film the hills I’ve been climbing for the last 30+ years.

If you’ve watched the videos (and hopefully they’re improving) do you think I have the right mix of route description, scenic shots v me talking and the actual activation. To be honest, I started doing them as route guides, hoping to encourage people to the hills with their radios. The earlier videos had little or no QSO action.

I’ve just done a couple of big hikes and I am conscious that there’s probably 30 mins of unedited QSO footage on each one. So, before I get editing, let me know if this would be of interest (with dull gaps edited out),or are you just there for the climb and the scenery, (or even just to shake your head at my operating skills, particularly in cold weather :grinning:).

If I don’t hear anything, I’ll plod on.

Thank you and 73,

Fraser

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Hi Fraser,
I’ve been watching all your videos since you started posting them here on this Reflector and I’ve always enjoyed them. I mainly enjoy watching the different Scottish mountains and landscapes, but also realising how tough seems to be sometimes the weather under which you guys activate up there.
Personally, I’m not much interested in the QSOs section, because I can hear both of my own sides (activator and chaser) very often.
However, let me tell you a personal opinion about video activation reports: normally, I prefer written reports with lots of pictures because it takes me less time to read/watch them than a long video. I often read the Reflector on my smartphone while in the living room with my family watching TV and watching videos makes it impossible because I need to wear earbuds and that isolates me from the resto of the family, who often comes to me with coments, questions or requests.
Reading a written report is something I can interrupt at anytime and continue later if necessary.
Also because, not being English my mother tongue language, I normally understand 100% of what it’s written in an activation report and much less of that % of what’s spoken in a video to an ambience microphone. It’s a different story when the audio is recorded in a studio with no wind and other difficulties.
After all the time you’ve been activating SOTA, Fraser, I’ve finally managed to chase you today for the 1st time on 40m SSB. It was quite a difficult copy but patient waiting finally payed off and the QSB brought you up for a brief while enough to give you a 44 report.
Thanks for the activation and QSO.
73,

Guru

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I’m enjoying them Fraser. A nice balance.

The bit I just watched coming down the hill on your bike was a bit scary! I’d be with the “sensible” people who dumped their bikes. :scream:

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Hello Fraser,

Excellent video showing operating procedures.
I would like to see more videos like this.
As I heard in another video, they like to show operation, but not how they do it or how much is done. hihi
Congratulations. I subscribed to your channel.
73
Carlos
py2vm

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Let me get back to you tomorrow when I’ve had a look again :slight_smile: at some of your videos.

But YouTube is a wierd place. I got into a discussion with someone once about sinks in campervans. They thought none of them drained properly. I replied ours did and posted a video on YT to show it draining quickly.

The video has been seen over 80K times! Something very odd is going on with sink fetishists… :slight_smile:

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Hi Fraser,

Thanks for the S2S today; looking forward to the ES-001 video soon. I like the videos as they are - it gives me a chance to see Scotland from home. Could you add some further info on the kit used, route planning etc - that may be useful to others too, especially for summits that are perhaps less well known?

Cheers,
Simon

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My son put a video on when he changed the exhaust on his first car. He was 17 and it was a Corsa. It was basically a camera shoved against the exhaust outlet for a minute.

It had thousands of views.

I suspect SOTA is a niche part of a niche hobby!

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Hi John you appear to have a standard domestic type waste there (though difficult to tell whether 1 1/4" or 1 1/2"…) no doubt backed up by proper rigid ABS or PVC pipework*… in my experience (which does go back a few years) many camper vans and touring caravans have mini plugholes with 3/4" aperture, connected with 1/2" flexible hose (often thermoplastic!) which is very susceptible to kinking and blocking and thus prone to slow drainage…

I resemble that comment, I am a plumbing fetishist and proud of it :joy:

*Edited in afterthought… Note a clogged waste tank air vent can cause even a proper arrangement to drain slowly…

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Fraser: Great video, great scenery. What’s the HT + antenna setup? I’m trying to figure out how it’s connected and to what.

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Thanks for the feedback.
The handheld is a Yaesu ft-3d and if you see me with a long pipe sticking out of my rucksack, it’s one of these:
https://vk2zoi.com/articles/dual-band-half-wave-flower-pot/

It’s connected straight into the HT using a PL259 to SMA adaptor.

73,

Fraser

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I am enjoying the videos. Good scenery, some Land Rovers and radios, whats not to like? :slight_smile:
Cheers

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Guru, Thank you for the detailed feedback. I am conscious that my Scottish accent (although mild) may be an issue for non-natives! I’ve invested in an improved GoPro with a better mic. and hopefully this will help reduce wind noise. Tanks for the feedback on the QSO content too. The next two videos will feature all QSO’s as an experiment.

Great to work you from Ben Macdui GM/ES-001 yesterday! Here’s to the next one…

73,

Fraser

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Hi Fraser,
I’m conscient that it’s my problem and not yours or your Scottish accent. A specific accent may add some slightly different way to pronnounce certain words or even the use of some new different words, but that’s not for me the reason to have understanding difficulties. The main reason is ambience noise being present together with the speaker voice, as this includes, not only the wind, but also, the steps on the rocks or gravel for instance, the sometimes breathless speaking of a hiker, the water streams sometimes present, the speaker moving his head/mouth sometimes slightly away off the microphone while speaking. There are so many factors…
On top of that, If I tell you that I’m often watching and hearing your videos on my smartphone with a very low volume to avoid disturbing my family around in the house, the result is my little understanding of what it’s being said.
But don’t worry for me, it’s my problem and I can always wear a good pair of headphones if I want to have a much better sound and understanding.
You shouldn’t be investing on any super great expensive microphones because of things like these. I’m sure the English speakers don’t have any problem to follow your comments.
It always was difficult for me to have important work meetings in English or French on the phone because it was hard for me to hear and understand well while hearing through just one ear on the phone. Things changed dramatically when I got binaural headphones with microphone for my work desk phone.
Perhaps, a good thing to do is adding subtitles of what you speak on the microphone, as André F5UKL always does in his videos (he speaks in French and subtitles are in English), although I know this represents more work for you when preparing your videos. Just an idea, but it’s entirely up to you.
73,

Guru

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Guru, I am very aware that I am privileged to have English as my first language! I never take this for granted and there’s always room for improvement, whether on a QSO or talking on a video. I can run words together and drop 't’s from certain words, which are bad Scottish habits.

Anyway I’m part way through uploading two videos. (Slow rural broadband means this will take 6 hours.)The WX and mountain scenery is outstanding. The QSO time is practically un-edited and lengthy. Not for you and probably some others, so hit the “fast forward” button!

73, Fraser

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Please keep the videos up. I now have 10 days of self isolation to look forward to and they are good for my sanity! 73 (PS Our rural broadband got upgraded to FTTP … 70 Mb at the moment!) Paul

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As a recent incomer to Scotland (21 years this next September) I can tell you that Fraser has very little accent. When I first arrived I could understand about 75% of the spoken language of 50% of the people. Less if they were from Glasgow. About 5 years after moving up from NW England I flew via Stansted airport to Friedrichshafen. Stansted is only 70km from Central London but 5 years of only hearing Scottish accents or people on the TV I found I couldn’t understand a single person working in the airport. Well not quite. There was a pretty young girl working at the bar with a Jamaican accent who was easier to understand than the locals :slight_smile:

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I’m a Council estate Dundonian who’s mother was a school teacher. I worked in London for 7 years, then Glasgow, Fraserburgh and (finally?) Aberdeen. I think my accent is ‘blended’!

We passed some Chaps doing an amazing job rebuilding the summit path on Carn a’Mhaim GM/ES-013 the other day. They were from the west coast. I had to really tune in and listen hard to get the story. Entire sentences were blended into one word!

At my first job in Scotland there was with a guy from Oban. Even people who had lived their entire life in Scotland had issues understanding him. We had a client in Italy and after he’d been on site to Milan twice the client asked for us to send someone who spoke English next time. :slight_smile:

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What kind of range are you getting on 2m with the flower pot? I’ve got a FT3-DR, might like to try this. Does it increase your APRS range as well?

You know, that is the Golden Question!

Tuesday I had a 200km QSO summit to summit with a station running 5w into the flowerpot.
Wednesday I was in the same area and had a 300km summit to summit QSO using the whip on the HT. Yes it was weaker, but perfectly workable.

Advantages of flowerpot/half-wave
It sticks out above my head, so 360° coverage.
Cheap to make and robust.
Gain.

Disadvantages
A pain through trees. More of an issue for you I’d imagine.

Honestly, when there’s no ‘lift’ on 2m, it is much better. I’ve walked the same routes using both antenna and the flowerpot gets much better coverage to and from my QTH based APRS digipeater, MB7UAZ. That’s as scientific as I can be, I’m afraid.

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