[TenTec] "End of an era"

[Ken Brown]

There are probably as many ways to have fun with amateur radio as there 
are radio amateurs. I almost said "amateur radio operators", and then I 
realized, that a lot of the fun is not in operating at all. In fact this 
detail may be at the heart of the discussion. A lot of people don't get 
much of their enjoyment out of operating the radio, they'd rather have a 
computer do that for them. That's fine, even if it is not my personal 
choice. And I'm not going to say people who don't enjoy it the way I do 
aren't "real hams" anymore than I am going to imply that HF is somehow 
not as good or not "real radio" by calling it "DC".

I spent years building VHF and UHF repeater systems, mostly government 
public safety systems and some amateur systems. I had a lot of fun 
putting the systems together, building interconnecting cables, tuning 
duplexer cavities, climbing towers and mounting antennas and running 
heliax, configuring control systems for repeaters remote bases, receiver 
voting, etcetera. All of that work was a lot of fun. Yet I have never 
had a QSO on a two meter or UHF repeater that I would call fun, exciting 
or memorable. So, I see how operating is not necessarily where the fun 
is for some people some of the time, or even all of the time.

For me though, I enjoy operating an HF radio. I know that I could 
accomplish the same transfer of information many different ways, many of 
them more effectively if just the transfer of the information was the 
goal. HF communications can be automated to the point that the radios 
are just RF modems completely operated by computers. Maybe I could have 
some fun setting up these systems. I suspect that for me that is about 
where the fun would end, sort of like with VHF and UHF repeaters.

The more the computer does the radio operating, the less fun it is for 
me. The tubes in my Super-Pro warm up faster than Windows XP boots in my 
PC. My Omni VI uses microprocessors internally, while the human 
interface uses knobs and buttons. No rodents. I like it that way.

Have fun!

DE N6KB