Topband: 160

[Cecil]

Excellent post...

Cecil
K5DL

Sent from my Verizon Motorola Smartphone
On Aug 3, 2019 10:35 AM, kolson at rcn.com wrote:
>
>
> "The dogs bark, but the caravan rolls on" -ancient proverb 
>
> As I understand it, some of this discussion is based on the romantic idea that we old timers had it tough but today it's all easy and without real challenge. This charge is nothing new, so a little history might be in order. The history of Ham Radio since the advent of the home computer has been the gradual replacement of operator intervention with computer initiatives in our operating activities. Let's look at some. 
>
> FT8: 
> Is ultimately just another digital mode, the only real difference is that more of the automation is built in from the start. But, in principal, any of the digital modes (indeed any mode at all) can be made as automated as one desires these days. For those under 45 (hi hi), to operate RTTY back in the day required a thing called a Terminal Unit to translate the mark/space signals to voltage levels to feed a Teletype machine (which was basically a big, noisy, heavy duty typewriter). But that hasn't been the reality for RTTY for a long time. RTTY is now as easy as downloading a program, only marginally more difficult than operating FT8. After all, the packet cluster can give you the who and where and the program tunes your radio to the proper frequency. You press "send" until you get a reply (if you are working a rare DX counter operating split there can be some more to it) and the computer logs it after you make the contact and can even send the logging in to LOTW for credit. 
>
> DXing: 
> Originally required hours and hours in front of the radio, tuning and looking for the DX. Now there were things like DX nets, and newsletters/bulletins and the like to help a bit and DXpeditions were publicised in magazines and word of mouth. But with the advent of the computer and packet radio, all that changed. Decades ago, a friend of mine developed a computer program to track your DX totals and generate mailing labels for the QSL's. He interfaced that with the Packet and when a new coun... err... entity came on the air, his computer would send "DX" (in CW, of course) and he could walk back to the shack, work the counter and go back to the ball game. Quite a culture shock for the guys still tuning around on their National HRO's. Now the DX cluster is an entrenched reality along with Skimmer etc. No sitting in front of the rig necessary. And QSLing in the day was a royal PITA, now you just print out the labels and download the LOTW credits. 
>
> Contesting: 
> There is a film (now video, produced by a NFL films dude!) from decades ago on YouTube that shows the DX contest from the perspective of a bunch of the Frankford Radio Club participants. Again, if you are not over 45 it may be a bit of a mystery what's going on. There is no Packet cluster, so DX callouts happened on 2m FM! And you will see lots of paper. They are Log Sheets (where you wrote down your contacts) and Cross Check sheets (where you kept track of you contacts by listing them alphabetically so you wouldn't work too many duplicate contacts). After the contest, you would have to "redupe" your log to try and catch dupes that got past in the heat of battle, this would take a week or two of intermittent effort. And a fabulous talent for a contester to have was a good level of call recall (hi hi), the more guys you rememberd you worked the less you had to refer to the Cross Check sheet. Of course, all this is gone, replaced by our computer running a program like N1MM (or CT in th 
> e olden times). 
>   
> I could go on (but mercifully won't), the point is that this is all part of a natural progression, an inevitable part of human innovation. To me, the guys who really have a beef are the guys from after WW2 until the computer era. You could argue that we have devalued their accomplishments (you can also argue they had more fun, but that's another post). But I would argue that everyone's accomplishments stand on their own according to their time, circumstances and operating preferences. Hank Aaron didn't devalue Babe Ruth. I would also argue that the world keeps turning and the caravan is inexorable... 
>
> 73, Kevin K3OX  
>
> _________________ 
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