[CQ-Contest] Ham Radio Versions

[Zack Widup]

Sorry, the "get out of the way" was my poor choice of words. That
isn't really what I meant.

You're right; there's a lot more to it than cluster spots and remote
operating. I haven't watched that video yet, but I'm assuming it's the
same basic talk. He mentioned at one point a guy needed a transmitter,
so he "wrote a transmitter" ( yes, in software). That's one of the
things someone might do with new technology. Fascinating stuff.

I'm having a lot of fun with SDR. I have one of these $10 RTL SDR
dongles that plugs into a USB port. Just the other day I used it to
look at the 1296 MHz signal and 1152 MHz LO relative strengths out of
a transverter I built. And it was very handy in helping to
troubleshoot an STL link for a local FM station. Pretty good for $10.
I didn't expect a lot out of it but it performs better than I thought
it would.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 2:27 PM, Wes Plouff <nwplouff at wideopenwest.com> wrote:
> (Tacking onto the improved topic name, much better than "America's Cup.")
>
> To all the "ham radio 2.0" naysayers, wouldn't it help to see what N0AX
> actually had to say before criticizing it? The video
> athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rLlQeAVb08  is Ward Silver giving a
> speech on "Ham Radio... What Now?" a year before the SMC presentation
> mentioned up-topic. N0AX talks about ham radio heading toward "version 2.0,"
> but he never implies anyone should "get out of the way." He says instead to
> look at where new hams are coming from and not be complacent. Instead, N0AX
> wants hams to embrace change, embrace experimentation and embrace outreach.
>
> Change is not all cluster spots and remote operating. I don't operate in
> contests using Hammarlund or SBE rigs, paper logging or strictly cut-and-try
> antennas. It's not likely many serious contesters on this list do, either.
> SO2R, SDR transceivers, post-contest analysis software, weak-signal digital
> modes, SteppIR beams, all of these are somewhere beyond ham radio 1.0. Yet I
> doubt many who use them are telling others to get out of the way. They're
> just making more contacts.
>
> As for outreach, at Field Day, my local club made a point of putting lots of
> hams on the air, contest newbies who say "please copy" in every exchange. We
> also parked our GOTA station on 20 meter phone for most of the event,
> forgoing many points on a prime band. If we didn't do things like these,
> though, how would the curious get hooked on ham radio, and casual operators
> catch the contest bug?
>
> New blood in the hobby is always going to bring new ideas with them. Ward
> Silver is not advocating anything radical. He is an ARRL guy, after all.
>
> 73,
> Wes Plouff AC8JF
>
>
> On Wed, 28 Jun 2017 10:44:31, Tom Osborne<w7why1 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>> Probably a lot of us out there that prefer 'Ham Radio 1', where you
>> actually had to look for  your own contacts instead of depending on
>> technology to find them for you.
>
>
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> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
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