CW Issue/new rig sales
K7LXC at aol.com
K7LXC at aol.com
Fri May 24 11:16:01 EDT 1996
In a message dated 96-05-24 00:31:00 EDT, you write:
>In recent phoning for price and getting massive busy signals at many ham
>radio stores, I am puzzled by the idea that radio sales are down. Also,
>visits to AES in Orlando see all the clerks continuously (not
>"continually") busy with phone to such degree that in-store sales are much
>delayed. What gives? 73, K4VUD
>
Charlie --
Sales are down at almost all amateur radio stores across the board.
Erickson Radio in Chicago just closed their doors. Even in the best of
times, the profit margins available to radio store owners is so small (even
single digits in a lot of cases) that any professional retailer wouldn't even
give it a glance. AES and Ham Radio Outlet are the two biggest retailers and
both are well-oiled organizations. I've been at the Milwaukee AES store on a
Monday and they were BUSY! They both do a good job and that's why they are
the biggest.
IMO we're not going to recover in the retail arena until the sunspots
return; maybe then the Tech-Plussers will get excited about 10M, find out how
much fun HF is and upgrade. If that doesn't happen, our hobby is in trouble.
73, Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH -- professional tower supplies and services for amateurs
>From k0wa at southwind.net (Lee Buller) Fri May 24 15:31:22 1996
From: k0wa at southwind.net (Lee Buller) (Lee Buller)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 09:31:22 -0500
Subject: ARRL and No Code Members
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19960524143122.006a23ac at southwind.net>
A recent conversation with my division director revealed that the no coders
have had little or no impact on membership growth for the League. In other
words, it amounts to the same number of people joining the League if there
wouldn't have been the no code people.
The way he said it, he was almost apologetic about the whole issue of the
no-code license.
Lee, K0WA
k0wa at southwind.net
PS. With all this dropping CW, I am having some second thoughts about the
new amp I purchased at Dayton. Think about out investments in our equipment!
Lee Buller
k0wa at southwind.net
>From george at epix.net (AA3JU) Fri May 24 15:23:14 1996
From: george at epix.net (AA3JU) (AA3JU)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 10:23:14 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: The Young Gun goes OFF!
Message-ID: <1.5.4.16.19960524103700.2b4f249c at epix.net>
At 11:27 AM 5/23/96 -0700, I got this nice note from Pete N4ZR:
>Good job, George. About the only point I would add is that even of your
>situation doesn't permit a tower or any of this major stuff (stacked quads!)
>you can still be a mad contester. Ask KB8N - whose NCJ article ought to be
>required reading...
>
>73,
>
>Pete Smith N4ZR (n4zr at contesting.com)
I started with the contesting using only wire antennas and locally have a
rep for being able to build one hell of an antenna from almost nothing! I
worked the ZL8RI with my beams laying on the ground using my emergency
ground plane antnneas that I keep up all the time total cost of them for
20-15-10 was I think $10 for the 3 of them!
Plus my pride and joys which are my low band Yaggis for 80 and 4 and loops
for 40
They kick some serrious behind.
I never have a problem with holding a run freq or breaking a pile up with them.
Now for my tower ha ha ha
I got the top for free from a contester
I got the first 40 feet for $45 from a contester
I just got another top and 20 more feet plus a bent piece 8' long for a base
for $25 from a contester
Got the Gem Quad for free from a SK (who contested)
Got the Cubex quad for $175 from a contester
Got a rotor for free just needed cleaning etc from an OT and all I had to do
was get it down (Also netted a piece of TV tower 15' and this silly Quaggi
that I had up for a while)
2nd Rotor got on a trade to another contester for some computer stuff that I
gleaned off of some machines I got for clearing out an office.
Guy wires from a ham fest $15
Turnbuckles also hamfest military surplus $6
Concrete from my friend Dale $25 (he had extra from a porch he was pouring)
OK Bottom line on my soon to be Stacked Quads: $296.00 (and a lot of hard
work!)
Price for a new 2 meter walkie Talkie at Radio Shack $249.00
So Whaddya wanna do with your money? Wanna Contest? or do you wanna talk
on the repeater?
I am not sorry to take this bandwidth!
I get sick to death hearing new hams talk about "All that money" and watch
them go out and buy walkie talkies and wear them like some red badge of courage.
This past season Team AA3JU won the PA QSO party and we got 1.2 million pts
in ARRL DX CW. I got a clean sweep in SS and did pretty darn good in the 10
meter test.
And I have less than a weeks pay in the air as far as antennas.
(Thanks Pete for the note and the quote see you in the pile ups!)
George
*********************************************
*George Cook.....AA3JU.....AKA "The Ratman" *
*george at epix.net.....AA3JU@W3PYF *
*http://www.epix.net/~george *
* *
*Proudly Frankford Radio Club......... *
*.......Proficiency Through Competiton. *
*"Not just words but a way of life" *
*********************************************
>From floydjr at Interpath.com (Jimmy R. Floyd) Fri May 24 13:13:46 1996
From: floydjr at Interpath.com (Jimmy R. Floyd) (Jimmy R. Floyd)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 09:13:46 -0300
Subject: WPX Scores
Message-ID: <199605241431.KAA09365 at mail-hub.interpath.net>
I will be compiling the scores in WPX CW this year as in the past. Just
a few reminders to help me and make it easier on you I hope.
1. Make sure you put your ENTIRE CLASS on your scores. No single op and
assume that I know you are HP or LP. As before if I get no class or
cannot determine what your class is you will go into Single Op Assit.
2. All I need is the summary from CT, NA, or TR. That will give me all
the info I need. One other request is NOT to ATTACH these files. If
a file is attached I have to use another reader to see it and takes
quite a bit of time.
3. Please put your scores at the top of your feedback or story. Saves
me having to read down a long story to get the info I need.
4. Also if you will include the hours you operated.
As before do not post any scores to this reflector. Post them to the
3830 reflector or send them to me direct or do both. I will post the
compiled scores on here.
Wish everyone good luck in it and look like band conditions are good for
a good one.
73's Jim
**********************************************************
* Jimmy R. Floyd (Jim) Thomasville, NC *
* *
* Amateur Call: >> WA4ZXA << *
* Packet Node: >> N4ZC << *
* Internet Address: **NEW** >> floydjr at interpath.com << *
**********************************************************
>From KR2Q at worldnet.att.net (Douglas Zwiebel) Fri May 24 15:49:10 1996
From: KR2Q at worldnet.att.net (Douglas Zwiebel) (Douglas Zwiebel)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 14:49:10 GMT
Subject: no kid contesters
Message-ID: <199605241449.OAA19845 at mailhost.worldnet.att.net>
Ahem....ladies and gentleman,
May I be so bold as to point out that there is population bulge centered
around the early 50's to 60's. The population is aging OVERALL. Why do
you think there is a scramble in DC about SSI and HOW it will fund itself?
OVERALL, there are very much FEWER kids from the 70's and 80's due, in no
small part, to guys like me (us!) who either started their families later in
life and/or had SMALLER families than had been the trend after WWII. Don't
look now, but over the last decade (and then some) grammar schools have
closed, as have high schools. In high schools built and occupied by
1200 kids, there are now populations of 500 kids. I'm talking about on
average for the entire USA, not zeroing in growth states like OR or AZ, etc.
Colleges are going crazy recruiting "new" students: ADULTS! There's no supply
of kids for them! Did your PARENTS every get 'MBA weekend program' mail?
If hams were (then) a tiny % of the kid population and contesters were/are
an even smaller % of that, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out
what is going on. Add computers/internet for "DXing" on line (with not
only voice but pictures) and you will find that we have NO CONTROL here.
You can't hold back the sea (or in this case, the withdrawing tide).
Demographically, it is only EXPECTED that hams (ergo contesters) are aging.
Is it any surprise that a 37 year old "new" contester calls himself young?
[As for "geekness," yes! I too started at 13/14 years old and found it
"neat" that I could compete with anybody I wanted to (though not always
successfully) though being super "shy" in school. Yup...nobody knew I
was a dog.]
de Doug KR2Q
>From fisher at hp-and2.an.hp.com (Tony Brock-Fisher) Fri May 24 15:47:25 1996
From: fisher at hp-and2.an.hp.com (Tony Brock-Fisher) (Tony Brock-Fisher)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 10:47:25 -0400
Subject: CW
Message-ID: <9605241447.AA15915 at hp-and2.an.hp.com>
Is it just dawning on me, or have we all been missing the point on the CW
thing? If the CW requirement is dropped, then there will be no reason
to protect the CW mode with band plans. So now, all of the bands are
available for SSB, SSTV, tuna boats, etc.
Maybe I had the cart before the horse. Maybe increasing the amount
of bandwidth available for SSB etc is the driving force behind the
no-coders!?
I alsways figured it was just a matter of time before they finally
dropped CW from the internationaly treaties. I had hoped they would
replace it with some other technical testing requirement that would
act as a filter to ensure that hams had a certain level of character
and dedication to the hobby to be worthy of the bandwidth.
I also figured that while after that dreaded date, there would never be another
new ham that could copy code, they would leave us dinosaurs alone,
and CW would at least live until the last one of us died at the key.
But now I think not so; it looks to me like they'll run us off the bands
in less than six months after they kill the requirement. It's not our
mode they're after, its our BANDWIDTH!
Anybody want to write an internet program that sends CW over the net?
-Tony, K1KP, fisher at hp-and2.an.hp.com
>From KR2Q at worldnet.att.net (Douglas Zwiebel) Fri May 24 16:03:46 1996
From: KR2Q at worldnet.att.net (Douglas Zwiebel) (Douglas Zwiebel)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 15:03:46 GMT
Subject: no kid contesters (II)
Message-ID: <199605241503.PAA03327 at mailhost.worldnet.att.net>
Oops...forgot the ending :-)
The conclusion is NOT to worry NOW about how many "kids" we are
recruiting, but to go after the 'meat + potatos' of the potential
growth [us old guys]. If the current growth is from that segment
WITHOUT EVEN TRYING, just think what might be done if we make a concerted
effort in that direction. THINK MARKETING. If you're selling log-splitters,
would you try to sell them at the North Pole? 'Older guys/gals' (like us)
are less likely to be enthralled (spending 20 hours/week) on the
internet or to be computer enamoured. Since they had their peers
(back in HS or college) become hams, they are somewhat familiar
with the term and maybe even the potential for fun. When the population
demographics change (which it will), THEN we can target whatever segment
shows the most potential; if it's kids, then go for kids. The world is
a changing place. Just because we were kids when we got interested, does
NOT mean that we should still be concentrating our efforts there. Sure,
still go after the kid market, but don't spend the big bucks there.
de Doug KR2Q
>From aa2du at netcom.com (J.P. Kleinhaus) Fri May 24 18:42:13 1996
From: aa2du at netcom.com (J.P. Kleinhaus) (J.P. Kleinhaus)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 10:42:13 -0700
Subject: FASC: Drop "CW", not a Joke!
References: <199605240123.SAA19210 at arasmith.com>
Message-ID: <31A5F4F5.1685 at netcom.com>
Jim, you wrote: The League's financial statements are readily available:
they're published in QST.
Strange, not this year. Instead there was some sort of footnote
saying that you could request a copy from the ARRL if you felt
like reading it. Certainly not as convenient as publishing them
in QST.
73, J.P. AA2DU
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