Alex Eban wrote:
> Well, today, for the greatest part, manufacturers also add to the fire.
> A number of them don't supply schematics or information detailed enough for
> service or, else, you need all kinds of extenders or jigs. This only adds
> fuel to the fire. But' like somebody said, the "no knowledge" syndrome is
> much more disconcerting that the no code one. The new Elekraft K3 is a kit
> WITHOUT SOLDERING: 7 minutes to a working radio. NO SOLDERING!!!
>
I've built many dozens of computers and they are like the K3, in that
you just assemble a bunch of hardware and plug in a few parts.
Regardless of the chosen OS, (I use three in a multi boot configuration,
Fedora LINUX, Win 7, and XP Pro) the only difficult part is configuring
the darn things. One of my pet peeves is most ham projects use the
serial port rather than USB. Now that may be a "Universal Serial Port",
but there are at least 4 configurations that work with the USB AND it
has one connection that supplies power. Sure there are adapters that go
from USB to the old serial, but I had one take out the entire on board
USB bridge on a rather expensive motherboard. Fortunately there are PCI
cards with that function as well, but the number of PCI slots is getting
kinda small. Unfortunately most of the manufacturers use the serial
port as well. OTOH I have noted the serial port showing up again on a
few of the newer boards. Icom uses the audio port which works very well
and with the 756 Pro and the Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.5Kfx, or 2.5Kfx you can
control the entire station. You may also spend some time getting the
operating codes from the manual to work in a home grown program. OTOH
you lose the other audio port functions.
BTW, my degree is in CS and I've never even seen Pearl...OTOH no one
else that far back had either. But I'll bet few on here have ever
programmed in VGL either<:-)) I'd be surprised if any one has ever seen it.
Industry in general (from automobiles to Ham Radio) is becoming more
"black box" oriented. At my age that isn't all bad as my hands are no
longer steady enough to hand solder surface mount ICs and although my
vision is still 20/15 in both eyes at a distance I need bifocals for
close up work, reading the screen in front of me, or working on circuit
boards. Unfortunately as you age you lose some of the brightness dynamic
range and coupled with glasses, looking at circuit boards produces lots
of shiny spots and dark shadows. Of course if your hands aren't steady
enough it hardly matters. Now I've watched my neighbor hand solder
surface mount ICs, but I fear that part of my profession is now well
behind me.
So, although I decry the black box approach to many things, I find it
rather nice by necessity, not because I'd rather do it that way.
> What can be expected from a system which encourages blackbox operators just
> to keep membership up?
>
In the US the goal is as it has been from the start, "To create a pool
of trained operators" for handling traffic.but I've found the required
courses to be of little use and some of the procedures for handling
traffic to be counter productive. Flying airplanes IFR in some busy
airspace has given me a lot of practice in getting critical information
sent in minimal time and lives depend on that information. That gives me
pause about the way the NTS teaches log-ins by saying "This is"<pause>
and then their ID. It sounds like they forgot their call, but that is a
good time to make your own call. Using that approach with ATC might end
up with the caller being given less than stellar service or even chewed out.
At any rate, I still do storm chasing, but when it comes to traffic I
feel I've already paid my dues. <:-)) Got a wee bit too close to a
tornado in white out conditions and now the front end of my 4-Runner
needs repainting. Spun a 180 under a stop light and got out of there in
a hurry. I was happy to get out of there with just a few dents and the
windshield in tact.
> The tendency to pay someone else to do the job robs a lot of people of the
> thrills of creating something new with their own hands.
> This also entails the disappearance of parts sources, since nobody cares to
> look for them. If Digikey charges $10 for 10 SMT resistors and you can't
> find through hole components any longer, then building a new radio is really
> an expensive proposition!
>
and frustrating.
However our local ham club has been creating a lot of smaller
do-it-yourself projects for the new kids on the block as well as the old
timers.
But in the long run about the only equipment I can truly build now are
power supplies, QRO, QRP, and antennas.
73
Roger (K8RI)
> Alex 4Z5KS
>
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