[Amps] Decline of homebrewing?

[Rob Atkinson]

All this demonstrates is that there are two ham radios, and some of
you inhabit a world foreign to mine.  In my ham radio, nearly everyone
I know is a "ham in a basement with a soldering iron."   Building is
cost effective because the parts are not purchased new.  There are
these things called hamfests.  You ignore the shiny new junk and stay
outside in the flea market where the quality parts are:  Cardwell air
variable caps, Radio switches, EFJ edge wound plated coils, Sangamo
cast mica caps etc.

"Few hams today are
comfortable working with high-voltage vacuum tube circuits,"  Really?
That statement is mind boggling.  I feel like I'm in a parallel ham
universe.  Everyone I know runs tubes.  I can't imagine radio without
the glass fire bottles.

"The licenses are all about operating, not technical skill beyond the
basics to get on the air:"

That is utterly preposterous.  W6WRT, you must not have even bothered
to read the Part 97 preamble I posted; but then again, you are the guy
who can't accept conventional current flow direction.   You can have
any opinion you want but you can't make up your own facts.

73

Rob
K5UJ