[CQ-Contest] Will there be anyone to work in 20 years?

[Ward Silver]

On 5/28/2013 7:16 AM, ZL2HAM wrote:
> Pitching radio just as a way to
> talk to others, which puts it in competition with cell phones, Skype and the
> Internet, is a mistake.

Completely agree.  What is it that ham radio has which is not available 
to any other citizen communication service anywhere? (Citizens Band and 
freebanders notwithstanding) The answer is a completely novel way to 
interact with an unseen and rarely experienced aspect of the world 
around us.  The ionosphere, tropospheric propagation, meteor scatter, 
moon bounce, grey line, dawn enhancement (that sounds like a great movie 
title right there), backscatter, sporadic E, long path...  What I tell 
people is that when I'm on the radio, I can literally hear the world 
turning.  That is what stops them in their tracks - not that I can talk 
to the Islets of Langerhan which they can do any time from anywhere for 
free. (As long as the 'net is working where they are...that's a 
different story.)

The point being not that our communications are easier than commercial 
stuff but that it's HARDER for cool reasons!  That's why hiking and 
backpacking and bicycling and fly fishing are all still so popular - 
it's not the common, ordinary, everyday stuff.  That you can build and 
experiment and fool around with radio stuff is icing on the cake.

73, Ward N0AX