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Re: Topband: K9FD & digital

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: K9FD & digital
From: "m.r.c." <mrc02@kinderteacher.com>
Reply-to: "m.r.c." <mrc02@kinderteacher.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:22:53 -0700
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
PLEASE lets NOT go down the digital ruined the world rabbit hole again!

its a discussion for a different venue PLEASE

I am not a moderator, just a list member with a sore delete finger. I DO want to hear what the folks actually on the air are accomplishing. but I do NOT want to hear doom and gloom about SSB ruining the AM bands, or Digital is the end of the world, its NOT topband material.

Robin, WA6CDR

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Brown" <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2022 14:52
Subject: Re: Topband: K9FD


On 9/28/2022 1:34 PM, kolson@rcn.com wrote:
Seriously, he developed the mode, but it was the general Ham population that popularized it. They "voted" to operate that mode out of free will, many because folks with mediocre stations had very little opportunity to work DX at the sunspot doldrums, some because they just didn't enjoy the other legacy modes, etc. No one stopped anyone who actually wanted to get on CW (or any other mode) from doing so. So "they" didn't ruin 160m, 6m or anything else, for that matter.

Blaming the decline of 160M CW activity on FT8 is barking up the wrong tree. Two factors are far more important. Both here, and on a jazz email reflector I've participated in for at least 25 years, we're getting older, getting less active, far too many QSYing away from the green side of the grass. Note the recent post from one of the guys in VK who noted that as he got older, he was no longer motivated to be on the air at the crack of dawn to work DX.

The second factor is noise. In a San Francisco SBE chapter meeting I just attended online, it was noted that noise levels on the AM broadcast band have risen more than 20 dB. The presenter, from Orban, a long time leader in signal processing, is a ham, and at least half of the attendees listed their ham calls. The primary objective of broadcast signal processing is maximizing loudness; on the FM band, it's about maximizing the excitement level of music; on the AM band, it's about getting through that noise.

I've known that presenter, W9CN, from our days in Chicago more than 40 years ago!

73, Jim K9YC

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