On 5/28/2013 7:16 AM, ZL2HAM wrote:
Pitching radio just as a way to
talk to others, which puts it in competition with cell phones, Skype and the
Internet, is a mistake.
Completely agree. What is it that ham radio has which is not available
to any other citizen communication service anywhere? (Citizens Band and
freebanders notwithstanding) The answer is a completely novel way to
interact with an unseen and rarely experienced aspect of the world
around us. The ionosphere, tropospheric propagation, meteor scatter,
moon bounce, grey line, dawn enhancement (that sounds like a great movie
title right there), backscatter, sporadic E, long path... What I tell
people is that when I'm on the radio, I can literally hear the world
turning. That is what stops them in their tracks - not that I can talk
to the Islets of Langerhan which they can do any time from anywhere for
free. (As long as the 'net is working where they are...that's a
different story.)
The point being not that our communications are easier than commercial
stuff but that it's HARDER for cool reasons! That's why hiking and
backpacking and bicycling and fly fishing are all still so popular -
it's not the common, ordinary, everyday stuff. That you can build and
experiment and fool around with radio stuff is icing on the cake.
73, Ward N0AX
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