"The dogs bark, but the caravan rolls on" -ancient proverb
As I understand it, some of this discussion is based on the romantic idea that
we old timers had it tough but today it's all easy and without real challenge.
This charge is nothing new, so a little history might be in order. The history
of Ham Radio since the advent of the home computer has been the gradual
replacement of operator intervention with computer initiatives in our operating
activities. Let's look at some.
FT8:
Is ultimately just another digital mode, the only real difference is that more
of the automation is built in from the start. But, in principal, any of the
digital modes (indeed any mode at all) can be made as automated as one desires
these days. For those under 45 (hi hi), to operate RTTY back in the day
required a thing called a Terminal Unit to translate the mark/space signals to
voltage levels to feed a Teletype machine (which was basically a big, noisy,
heavy duty typewriter). But that hasn't been the reality for RTTY for a long
time. RTTY is now as easy as downloading a program, only marginally more
difficult than operating FT8. After all, the packet cluster can give you the
who and where and the program tunes your radio to the proper frequency. You
press "send" until you get a reply (if you are working a rare DX counter
operating split there can be some more to it) and the computer logs it after
you make the contact and can even send the logging in to LOTW for credit.
DXing:
Originally required hours and hours in front of the radio, tuning and looking
for the DX. Now there were things like DX nets, and newsletters/bulletins and
the like to help a bit and DXpeditions were publicised in magazines and word of
mouth. But with the advent of the computer and packet radio, all that changed.
Decades ago, a friend of mine developed a computer program to track your DX
totals and generate mailing labels for the QSL's. He interfaced that with the
Packet and when a new coun... err... entity came on the air, his computer would
send "DX" (in CW, of course) and he could walk back to the shack, work the
counter and go back to the ball game. Quite a culture shock for the guys still
tuning around on their National HRO's. Now the DX cluster is an entrenched
reality along with Skimmer etc. No sitting in front of the rig necessary. And
QSLing in the day was a royal PITA, now you just print out the labels and
download the LOTW credits.
Contesting:
There is a film (now video, produced by a NFL films dude!) from decades ago on
YouTube that shows the DX contest from the perspective of a bunch of the
Frankford Radio Club participants. Again, if you are not over 45 it may be a
bit of a mystery what's going on. There is no Packet cluster, so DX callouts
happened on 2m FM! And you will see lots of paper. They are Log Sheets (where
you wrote down your contacts) and Cross Check sheets (where you kept track of
you contacts by listing them alphabetically so you wouldn't work too many
duplicate contacts). After the contest, you would have to "redupe" your log to
try and catch dupes that got past in the heat of battle, this would take a week
or two of intermittent effort. And a fabulous talent for a contester to have
was a good level of call recall (hi hi), the more guys you rememberd you worked
the less you had to refer to the Cross Check sheet. Of course, all this is
gone, replaced by our computer running a program like N1MM (or CT in th
e olden times).
I could go on (but mercifully won't), the point is that this is all part of a
natural progression, an inevitable part of human innovation. To me, the guys
who really have a beef are the guys from after WW2 until the computer era. You
could argue that we have devalued their accomplishments (you can also argue
they had more fun, but that's another post). But I would argue that everyone's
accomplishments stand on their own according to their time, circumstances and
operating preferences. Hank Aaron didn't devalue Babe Ruth. I would also argue
that the world keeps turning and the caravan is inexorable...
73, Kevin K3OX
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