A Ham’s First Experience at a Hacking Convention – HOPE_16

August 15-17, 2025

This past weekend I went to HOPE_16 (Hackers on Planet Earth) in New York City, and it was my very first time at an event like this. For years, I’ve wanted to go to DEFCON, but I never made it happen. In a way, HOPE felt like my first step into that world. Going in, I didn’t know what to expect — would I feel out of place as a ham, or would I find common ground? By the end of the weekend, I had my answer: not only did I fit right in, but I came home with new skills, funny memories, and a whole new list of projects I want to try.

Friday started off pretty simple with setting up the Ham Radio Village table. From there, everything snowballed. I learned what a Rayhunter was for the first time, and after learning about what it is used for, I got hooked and bought an Orbic mobile hotspot from the Retia team, which was already flashed with the Rayhunter firmware created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I spent a while just walking around and checking out booths, deciding where I might want to spend my money — but the big highlight of Day 1 was building my very first Meshtastic node at the Script Kitty Village. It was also the first time I ever soldered, which was both exciting and a little nerve-racking. Unfortunately, after some testing when I was done, it turned out that the chip on my node was faulty, so Kody Kinzie (who was running the workshop with Retia) asked to keep it and see what went wrong. That was a little disappointing, but he told me to come back to the booth on Day 2 or 3 and he would make sure I didn’t go home empty handed.

The rest of Friday was a mix of fun and discovery. I joined in on Toilets on the Air (yes, like Parks on the Air but with bathrooms around the venue) hosted by the ham radio club of NYC Resistor, checked out the Lockpick Village hosted by Lockpick Extreme, and met a surprising number of ham radio operators — along with plenty of people who were curious about becoming hams. To end off Day 1, I went to Dave “Heal” Schwartzberg’s talk about Meshtastic security risks. Since I’d just built my first node earlier that day, the timing couldn’t have been better. He covered things like physical attacks, privacy leaks, key management, and jamming. It gave me a whole new perspective on how to secure a Meshtastic node as I learn more about Meshtastic.

Saturday was a completely different experience. Instead of spending the day exploring, I helped with the Tech in a Day workshop hosted by the Suffolk County Radio Club and the Ham Radio Village. We used Dan Romanchik KB6NU’s No Nonsense Technician Class License Study Guide and taught for six hours before giving the test right afterward. Nicole AD2IM and Dustin KE2EFX were amazing at helping everyone with understanding all of the electrical content, Ohm’s Law, and all of the other things I cannot remember from the Tech test. I jumped in around the half-way mark when it started going over station safety, operating procedures, and FCC rules. After 6 very long hours, everyone got a break, and then we got straight to testing. Even though Dan couldn’t make it (he got con-crud from DEFCON), we pulled it off: 18 new Techs, one Novice-to-Tech upgrade, and one expired licensee who passed both their Tech and General exams. It felt good to be part of helping people join the hobby. Later that night after a long day of teaching and testing, Frank KB1QZH and I decided to activate all five Toilets on the Air, which earned us both the Worked All Toilets and Activated All Toilets awards — something I never thought I’d be adding to my ham radio memories.

On Sunday, I circled back to the Script Kitty Village and met with Kody again. Instead of revisiting the beginner build from Friday, he walked me through making a more advanced Meshtastic node, which was part of a Saturday workshop I had missed while testing new hams. That’s when I really got hooked — now I can’t wait to explore Meshtastic further at home. I also learned how to send SSTV using just my HT and phone, which turned into me sending every funny photo I could find from my camera roll because why not. In between, I walked the vendor floor and got inspired by projects like GameTank, an open-source 8-bit gaming console that’s 3D printed. And of course, I had to stop by the Lockpick Village one more time and practice my newly learned lockpicking skills before packing up and heading to the closing ceremony.

As I look back, and stare at the (not stolen) Toilet #2 TOTA sign hung up on my wall, HOPE_16 was a perfect mix of learning and community. I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into the hacker world, and this gave me the chance to finally do it. As a ham, I wasn’t sure how much crossover I’d find, but I was surprised by just how many operators were there. I came away with new knowledge, new connections, and new excitement to keep exploring — especially with Meshtastic and SSTV. For me, this was a big first step into a world I’ve always wanted to be part of, and I can’t wait for HOPE_17.

To find more events like this that SCRC will be at, be sure to check the Events Calendar.

73!
Daniel W2DIY