1800pdt 14jun18
Hello Dave, in Maine, brother of k1wht, wa2zzf, and others from the Twoer days
when we were kids in the 60s.
Dave, your comment: “I am rapidly losing interest in VHF & it breaks my heart.”
Brought real tears from my 71.4 year old eyes. I began as kn1fjm in newton,
mass (9 miles west of boston) in 1963 with a Twoer & HyGain 3 element indoor
yagi: working k2hla on long island was repeatedly a thrill.
I still love 2 meter ssb even after this many years of operating from Elizabeth
City, NC; Homestead, FL; Thousand Oaks, CA; & Clinton, WA.
To all of us old farts, please refuse to let vhfing morph to ft8 and the disuse
of voice modes just as the 2 younger generations have done with their
“I-Whatevers”
Bt73
Pete N6ZE/K1FJM
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 13, 2018, at 10:03, Sean Waite <waisean@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I know a rover or two. No one wants to talk to them anyway, and they also
> kind of smell bad.
>
> 73,
> Sean Waite, K1SIG/R
>
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 12:15 PM Jonesy W3DHJ via VHFcontesting <
> vhfcontesting@contesting.com> wrote:
>
>>> On Wed, 13 Jun 2018, David Olean wrote:
>>>
>>> I know what you are saying about 144 MHz. That has always been my
>>> favorite band from the time I heard my first signal while standing on a
>>> branch in our apple tree. My brother and I were using a walki talki kit
>>> that had a 19" whip and a 3A5 in a super regen receiver. That was in
>>> 1961. Lately 144 MHz has taken a big hit in activity. Part of this is
>>> that the old crew of VHFers is dying off. These were the guys who made
>>> big antennas and homebrew KWs in an effort to push the limits and really
>>> learn about the propagation. Sam Harris was a prime example. Others were
>>> W4HHK, K2UK/ KH6UK, W8PT, W5RCI, K4IXC, W8KAY, W2AZL, and hundreds just
>>> like them. They are all dead now and times have changed. Add in the
>>> digital phenom and the band is not the same. My hat is off to KA1ZE for
>>> keeping the flame alive.
>>>
>>> I am quite upset about the FT8 situation. I could be wrong, but it is
>>> looking like a race to the bottom as far as I can tell. It is a way to
>>> play with no understanding of CW, so it opens up potential DX to those
>>> with none of the skills that make a good VHFer. The activity then
>>> attracts others because that is where the action is. I am quickly
>>> losing interest in VHF with all the digital modes as it disconnects me
>>> from hearing the actual propagation. I lost EME and meteor scatter and
>>> now I am losing troposcatter. I went to 160 meters in hopes of finding
>>> a new challenge, but FT-8 is taking over there as well.
>>>
>>> I got two bands back up and running with help from AA1VL and K1BX. Art
>>> operated mostly on six. I made a few contacts on 144, and we did not do
>>> any digital mode activity at all. He was strictly CW and SSB and loved
>>> every minute of it. He lamented that many DX grids were only on FT8 and
>>> he was shut out as a result. We did hook up an FT8 setup beforehand,
>>> and got it working but decided not to bother with it in the contest.
>>>
>>> I am rapidly losing interest in VHF and it breaks my heart.
>>>
>>> Dave K1WHS
>>
>> What he said!
>>
>> The seemingly headlong rush away from actual human-to-human contact
>> in amateur radio saddens me greatly. Where once we had ham radio
>> VHF contests; we now see computer radio VHF contests.
>>
>> Soon, with autonomous vehicles, even the rovers can stay home and
>> not have to actually talk to anybody.
>>
>> Jonesy W3DHJ/r -- usually DM87, DM88, DM77, DM78
>> --
>> <pre> Marvin L Jones | W3DHJ | W3DHJ | https://W3DHJ.net/
>> Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | __ linux FreeBSD
>> 38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | 73 SK
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