{"id":1967,"date":"2020-06-29T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2020\/06\/29\/soldersmoke-patreon-what-we-will-do-with-the-money\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T12:31:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T02:31:05","slug":"soldersmoke-patreon-what-we-will-do-with-the-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/2020\/06\/29\/soldersmoke-patreon-what-we-will-do-with-the-money\/","title":{"rendered":"SolderSmoke Patreon — What We Will Do with the Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Become a Patron!<\/a> <\/div>\n

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I mentioned our Patreon fund-raising effort in Podcast #223. We immediately got a number of new sponsors. Thanks! We also got a question: “Hey Bill, what are you going to do with all that money?” <\/b>In the spirit of SolderSmoke full transparency, I will attempt to answer that inquiry right here and now: <\/b><\/div>\n

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All funds will be used at the discretion of SolderSmoke management. <\/b><\/div>\n

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Possible (likely) uses include: <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Buying air time on shortwave broadcast stations so that the SolderSmoke podcast can be transmitted over the airwaves. We dream of stealing listeners from Brother Stair. <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Computers. From time to time we need to upgrade. This 486 machine is getting kind of rickety. <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Paying fees to our internet service providers and to the server that hosts our podcast. <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Contributing to worthy charitable causes, including the Color Burst Liberation Army (CBLA), and the Constructor Crusaders. <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Buying audio gear we use in the podcast like the really cool microphones that have DRAMATICALLY improved our audio. No more baby-wipe pop filters for us! <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Legal fees to the law firm of Dewey, Cheatam and Howe to fend off law suits, many of which are related to our obstinate use of 60\/40 solder, and to our occasional use of images that SOME PEOPLE find offensive. We also need to pay legal fees to fight our long-contemplated expulsions from the QRP Hall of Fame (Pete is especially vulnerable here). <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Magazine subscriptions (to those few remaining publications that have not pissed us off ). <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Buying stuff we use in video production (cameras, tripods, lights etc.) <\/b><\/div>\n

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— Further development of the SolderSmoke 401k Retirement fund. We currently invest in Drake 2-Bs, SSDRA books, Hallicrafters S-38Es, 3579 kc crystals, and other items sure to rise in value over time. <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Buying gear we will talk about on the podcast or in videos (like the NanoVNA). <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Parts. Si5351s and Raspberry Pi’s for Pete. 2N3904s and J-310s for Bill. <\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
— A new effort to assist electronics manufacturers in China with product name selection. “Mean Well” is just not a good name for a voltage regulator. And “FeelTech” does not bring to mind a signal generator. For a fee, we can help! <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Travel. If this ever becomes possible again, we need to get to India to meet up with Farhan. This will undoubtedly result in some awesome podcast\/blog\/video material. We also contemplate trips to the UK, Italy, Australia, China and New Zealand. But we still probably won’t go to Dayton. <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Buying miscellaneous tools, test gear, books, solder, rosin etc. to be used in the podcast, the blog, and in video production. <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— Buying stuff for carefully selected new homebrewers (people who will not sell the stuff we give them and then use the money to buy Baofengs). <\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
— A new Baofeng buy-back program. You know, like for assault rifles, but for VHF\/UHF walkie-talkies instead. <\/b><\/div>\n

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We seek your input! What else should we do with the money? <\/b><\/div>\n

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Become a Patron!<\/a> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Become a Patron! I mentioned our Patreon fund-raising effort in Podcast #223. We immediately got a number of new sponsors. Thanks! We also got a question: “Hey Bill, what are you going to do with all that money?” In the spirit of SolderSmoke full transparency, I will attempt to answer that inquiry right here and … Continue reading “SolderSmoke Patreon — What We Will Do with the Money”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soldersmoke-podcast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1969,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions\/1969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homebrewradio.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}