Ham radio is not dead. It has been dying since I got into it.
1 - Fear of the FCC and loss of license is gone
This was a rarity anyway. People are still losing their licenses and
the fines can be huge.
2 - Profanity and other on-air forms of civil disrespect abound
Society in general acts this way not just hams. Hams are people too.
3 - 8 and 9-YO EXTRA Class ticket holders - Cracker-Jack-prize
ticket-holders
The tests have been made easier. Why does this matter? My son who got
is tech at 13 could of had his extra by 15 but he got his general and
stopped. He have very little interest in radio. Some of it is because
of the nasty people he has heard and had to deal with, lousy conditions
and his free time is chewed up with fantasy football, Drones, gaming
etc. There are so many more outlets for kids and young people today
than ever.
4 - Cell phone comms to anywhere in the world kills mystery of radio
What really has killed radio is the steep price to get in and dwindling
locations in which to do it. To be competitive you must have a pretty
nice station. That is a major turn off. You can be a competitive gamer
with middle of the road computers.
5 - Examine QST's "The Doctor Is In" column and look at questions Extra's
are asking
People have been asking silly questions for years in that column.
6 - It appears today's kids are more interested in gaming as opposed to
things math/science
they are just application-experts and have little or no understanding
of HOW a computer
functions.(I have to admit my digital hardware skills are quite
lacking too.)
How many kids were interested in ham radio when you were growing up? I
bet not many. I went to a Junior high school and we had one teacher and
about 8 students interested in a school about about 300 people. I bet
that percentage is off the charts high for interest in radio. I just
happened to live in a very rural area with a bunch of hams around.
Those gamer kids probably know more about computer than most of us on
this list. They know how to over clock and get the most out of their
rigs, etc. Different skill sets. They will be driving unmanned fighter
jets, drones, tanks and more and will do it far better than any of us.
How many hams can explain how their radios work. Take a K3 or flex for
example. I bet most hams would not be able to tell you how a modern rig
works.
7 - CC&R restrictions against antennas has crippled many op's driving them
to being
repeater-band operators
Which is why FT8 and other modes like this and whatever is coming will
keep ham radio alive.
8 - Loss of CW as an entry-into-Ham-Radio-Filter has seriously dumbed-down
the technical
side of Ham Radio
Wrong. Dead wrong. There are more people interested in CW now than
ever. When you allow people to learn what they want instead of forcing
them down a path you get more out of them. I can't tell you the number
of Parks on the air SSB or county hunter ops that have started to learn
CW because they want to make more contacts and have figured out CW is
better when condx suck.
9 - Repeater systems linked together by commercial fiber lines, etc.
Why is this bad? Linking is good for statewide coverage, you get to
talk to more people and the systems are more robust and can handle
emergency and rescue ops better.
73 Dick/w7wkr at CN98pi and CN97uj
===============================================================
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2017 12:23:51 +0200
From: Hans Hjelmstr?m <sm6cvx@hjelmstrom.se>
To: Steve Ireland <vk6vz@arach.net.au>, sm5djz@ssa.se, sm6cmU
<sm6cmu@inolit.se>, topband@contesting.com
Cc: Kjell Nerlich <sm6ctq@gmail.com>, sm6ctq@ssa.se, Peter Andersson
<sm6mcw@skara.net>
Subject: Re: Topband: FT8 - the end of 160m old school DXing? (long)
Message-ID: <435447A1-A63A-4146-B55B-F17403D3234C@hjelmstrom.se>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Hi Steve
I FULLY agree on all you write. Unfortunately I also feel that Ham radio
is more or less lost.
According to me,,,this is NOT Ham radio,, it is digi to digi without any
personal feeling.
And even more ,it destroy completely the challenge of Ham radio?..
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