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Do You Still Find Amateur Radio Interesting?
Marcos Eliziario asks: "Soon, I'll be taking the exams for a Brazilian, Class-D, Ham Radio license (Equivalent to an American Technician License) and, as I was reading about the subject, I wondered what today's geek thinks about amateur radio. In the past, Ham Radio was very popular among nerds, however with the Internet boom it seems that interest on radio, among the younger generations, is becoming dimmer each day. A lot of cool things can be done with radio, like building your own equipment, digital modes (btw, few people know that Packet Radio was born on the amateur's rank), and long distance contacts. The gear is cool, there's a lot of things to be learned about propagation, and today's Hams even use satellites to talk. Do you think that we could see a renaissance of Ham Radio among 21st century techies?"
I'm studying for my amateur licence. It still has its uses in this day and age of the internet.
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Once upon a time I learned morse and passed the novice, tech and tech plus tests. Then I got into computers and the internet and a zillion other things. It probably would have been easy for me to renew my license to as good or better status given the easing of the tests, but I never got around to it. I still have my radios but the batteries are dead and probably won't even hold a charge anymore. Radio is still a curiosity, but not something I've chosen to spend time on.
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Depends.... Some of us might find that stuff interesting, but don't know who to turn to to "try it out". That, and the cost of entry is so high (equipment, putting up an antenna [which you can't even do if you have an apt. probably]) that it really is hard to "get started". As unfortunate as it may be, Ham radio may be in a bit of a downward spiral unless it can figure out a way to make it accessible and seem relevant to the younger generation.
Afraid the only radio I deal with these days is wireless internet access. I managed a "Tech Plus" license at one point (it was my first license, and I passed the written exam for the next class up, but wasn't able to copy down Morse code quickly enough).
:) That said, I did learn quite a bit about electronics, so it's not like I'm sorry I did it. I managed to do quite a bit of soldering/desoldering, too, although I never really got anything very useful working.
Unfortunately, I never got a rig, so... let's just say that my callsign won't appear in too many logbooks, sorry
It seems that if you have something worthwhile to spread, a podcast that allows people to listen when they want is both more efficient and easier to set up, and even if it's unpopular you're likely to get more listeners. While there have been some important aspects to ham radio, including some of the first responders for Katrina, the Sri Lankan tsunami, and "9/11", the fact that they were so limited in who could listen in seems to be the most drastic problem. Most people don't even know they still exist.
No.
Yes I certainly do! It is still a sandbox for trying things out that will become either part of the common practice or a failed experiment to add to your experience! Right now hams are experimenting wioth new ways to communicate, satellites, digital modes, rig control, repeater stations and VoIP. there is lots of room for experimentation and in the upper levels of qualification you don;t have to buy type-approved equipment. You can experiment on the air without going through a commercial approval process, which can cost tens of thousands for a commefcial piece opf equipment. Amateur radio is the original open-source community, with a tradition of sharing techniques and technology dating back a century. With wireless becoming more important to the computer community, there is lots of room for people whpo pass the exams to do real and beneficial experimentation on the air, and maybe even invent something worthwile for humanity without a million-dollafr lab! Right now in Toronto we are working on a new generation of VHF/UHF repeater controller (search for TorontoRepeaterController on yahoo groups) which will be all open-source, hardware and software. It not only will congtrol repeaters, but link into VoIP nets, remote control rigs, and provide a gateway for analog radio users into the new digital voice modes. Even buying commercial off-the-shelf mobiles help the cause, because what is the use of developing stuff without intelligent users to test it! The next few years will see an multifold improvement in progagation as we reahc the peak of the sunspot cycle for those who just like to communicate. Two cycles ago I had no problem working Europe with ten watts from the mobile on 30MHz! Amateur radio is alive and well - but don;t tell too many people. We like to keep its wonders to ourselves! 73, Nigel, VE3ID and G4AJQ
No. Most Slashdotters are under fifty, I think.
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Yes, amateur radio is still relevant. Where else do you get to play with satellites? Amateur radio is one of the few places (outside of NASA) where you can experiment with radio links through real satellites in orbit around the Earth. That's not something you can do over the Internet. The upcoming Phase 5A (P5A) launch will be a mission to Mars. You can't do *THAT* over the Internet. See http://www.go-mars.org/ (It's German. Use the fish!). More info on amateur radio and satellites is available at AMSAT's web site at http://www.amsat.org./
My friends and I use ham radio because our cell phones drop all the time. As long as we're a hundred miles or so from our local repeater we're good. The entry price wasn't too much for me. $180 for a 2-meter mobile and $170 for a dual-band ht.
How else will we communicate after civilisation collapses back to the level of 1905?
There are far more geeky things to do. Wny bother talikning to someone on the other side of the world via ham when I can just use my cellphone? Is it the random encounters with people you don't know?
It's more fun to frag someone in Quake then drop some smack in context.
My uncle had all his ham licenses when I was a kid. I was 9 and didn't see why it was fun then either. Looking back, it kind of seems like lame social networking for geeks.
Things are totally different now. Not only is the internet a free way to communicate (free as in zero dollars per minute), but you can actually communicate with people on the internet about -- get this -- anything you like! In other words, you're not just having these stilted, stylized conversations about what your rig is.
--KB6ZD
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I still find amatuer... Oh, wait. RADIO. Not pr0n.
One thing to keep in mind about geeks is that you can't pigeonhole them. Some like games and never bathe. Others like to program and stay up days consuming only Taco Bell and Mountain Dew. Others like to plug computers together and twiddle their fingers waiting for their kernels to finish compiling. Even others like to jack off to Sailor Moon and other Japanese cartoons.
On the outskirts of geekdom, you have people like yourself who are interested in ham radios or model trains or paper airplanes. These will pretty much always be niche geek markets because they just don't have the glamour that and visibility that the mainstream geek lifestyle provides.
Which is not to say that there aren't merits to these peripheral geek lifestyles. Ham radios, in particular, are very useful in times of crisis and crises rely on people with a sense of responsibility and social acuity. Typical geeks, if that is who you are trying to interest, are the exact opposite type of people to bring into the ham radio flock.
But be sure that what you are interested in is non-mainstream geekery. Just because something requires technical ability, it does not follow that it requires a geek to manage it. Somethings are just technically difficult and not geeky at all.
Ham radio is definitely geeky, though.
The great thing is that since everybody else has abandoned them for cellular telephones, CB radios are ultra inexpensive and you have the air to yourself, like owning 40 private channels. My wife and I have been using them between our house and my private observatory (at 6,200') and in that time we've only heard other users once.
Not long ago I was required to 'rescue' a technician at a nearby cellular site (on the same range as my observatory). He'd gone up late to repair a fault with the repeater and his vehicle became stuck in deep snow. The fun thing was that the local S&R, fire and police departments had no common radio links, and their cellphones were out due to the repeater fault. If it weren't for the CB radios they'd previously mocked we'd have had no comms.
Mike: Hi, folks. Mike Nelson here. Crow and Servo are about to help me with the annual Satellite of Love safety check. You guys ready?
Crow: Roger.
Servo: Ramjet.
Mike: All right, fire extinguishers?
Servo: Empty.
Crow: Shot them off in your face. Next.
Mike: Okay. Flare gun?
Servo: Ibid.
Crow: Shot them off in your face. Next.
Mike: Right. First aid kit?
Servo: Used it to treat your flare burns.
Mike: Right. Parachute?
Crow: Gym class.
Mike: Okay, life vest?
Servo: Falsies.
Mike: HAM radio?
Crow: Mistook it for an actual ham.
Mike: There. The Satellite of Love is completely unsafe. Hey, does anything work at all?
Servo: Yeah, the toaster oven. We used it to bake the HAM radio.
Crow: Mmm.
Mike: Okay, well then, we're dead. We'll be right dead.
Crow: C'mon, Mike. We're gonna go stick our heads in the towel dispenser!
Servo: Whee!
I've been a ham for 35 years now. (Damn, I'm an old fart.) I'm still active, and am looking seriously at the Icom D-Star networked digital radio technology as the next big thing.
...de K5ZC
Get the ticket. There's a lot out there.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
I wish i had the bankroll to get into HAM. I live in the woods and another way to communicate would be nice. Plus I predict that after the US government is done raping and pillaging the internet, IP over HAM might take off among those who know how, and want to keep a free internet.
That said, I've been learning morse code since Christmas and I intend to take the code test next month (the next time my local club offers the test). I'm going to order an Elecraft K2 and I'm quite excited. CW is so much more interesting than FM Voice. It takes skill, it has a challenge, and you I can hear letters and words in the series of beeps. Plus you can use it to talk to people all over the world. I'm especially excited because the K2 is a big electronics kit. The fact is once you get past a few blinking LED kits and such there are just no electronic kits to build that take any skill.
I find it kind of interesting, but I can see why some people don't think it's terribly interesting. Many of the things that used to make ham radio so interesting (being able to talk to people across the country or the world for free) are no longer unique (thanks to the internet and basically free long-distance calling).
It's too bad eHam has been down for 2 days (at least). I've wanted to post on their message board but I can't (since... it's down). I don't suppose anyone knows why?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I got my license this year and I think there is quite a lot in amateur radio to hold interest.
I've learned more in the last 6 months about RF theory than I did in my previous 33 years of life combined. And looking ahead I see I still have quite a lot to learn.
Once I've broken in my soldering iron learning to make a few different kinds of antennas for my radio, I'm looking forward to buidling a couple of APRS rigs. One for my car, the other for my All Terrain Vehicle. I might even put one in my backpack for when I'm out backpacking in the mountains and my family is worried about me being alone in the wilderness. They will be able to follow my progress.
I find out about severe weather conditions before the mass media can report it. Indeed, it is radio amateurs that provide the weather service with early warnings of approaching dangerous weather patterns. Living in the hurricane belt, and an area not unknown for springtime tornadoes, this is valuable to me.
Of course when the storms hit, and the public infrastructure goes down (including internet, cell phones, land lines) I can still communicate with people in and out of my immediate area.
As our world becomes more and more dependent on technological infrastructure, I think it is that much more important to preserve and grow the amateur radio service to be there as a fallback for when all of those other communications mediums fail (and they do, frighteningly often). During 9/11 attacks it was radio amateurs providing communications capabilities to the first responders in Manhatten. During the major power blackout in the northeastern US a few years back, it was radio amateurs that passed emergency communications reliably. During the rescue efforts following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it was radio amateurs coordinating emergency communications between all of the different rescue groups involved. Despite all of this newfangled technology we enjoy today, it only works when things are going well. When things aren't going well, we still need radio.
With the internet and cell phones, it is no longer a big deal to communicate around the world.
However, there's a lot of other interesting stuff to do. For example, building a wireless LAN that works over extreme distances is just an offshoot of the Ham mind-set...it just doesn't require a license.
There's a lot of cool Ham stuff you might do, but unlike the internet, you can't use it for commercial gain. This does put a damper on innovation.
The biggest draw for me is weather related...storm tracking, emergency communications, and stuff like that. The internet and cell phones just don't work well in those situations.
K5GDN
people in remote areas, land and water, still use HF
---- Put Sig here:
Hey,
Not being able to put up an apartment was referred to above. This got me thinking. Does equipment and services exist that would allow a HAM to use a remotely located antenna over the internet? For example, they would have all the typical gear at home and just not have the antenna. A bridge-like device would packetize the signal and transmit it to the antenna location where a like device would convert it back for broadcast.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
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KC5UVV. I have no idea when it lapses. It's just not useful for anything anymore and I don't even have equipment.
I think that it is still relevant but the interest has dwindled a little. The value and importance of it is larger now than I think ever before because of many different new areas that are developing. Specifically the data possibilities. And having been involved in emergency work their value there is beyond anything I can describe. They have so much capabilities and the resources.
The challenge is that people dont have the time or interest for the learning curve necessary.
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
I think it's cool that I own a 2400 baud hamm radio modem for a commodore 64. I've never used it--don't have a license. And never will (can't imagine I'll bother plugging in the C64 again). But it's cool I have one! :)
My experience, and I've had a technician's license for about 15 years, is that nowdays most amateur radio operators just want to talk. There's very little interest in electronics, building your own rigs and antennas and any sort of technical stuff. Most amateurs either want to talk or contest, things which aren't particularly interesting to most hardcore geeks.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I hoping that gnuradio gets some more momentum. Think of all the possibilities! I think things could get very interesting with experimental digital modulation. I haven't played around much with gnuradio since I don't have a USRP. It seems to me that the software is a little hard to use. I keep my eye on the project hoping that things will continue to move along and get easier to use.
Once things move along it would be nice to have a portable gnuradio hardware that could interface to a PDA for HT uses.
Mu
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
As far as a serious hobby with real applicability? Probably not unless you are into emergency communication type stuff. I used to command a sheriff's office search and rescue team and got into ham radio then. Since I don't do that anymore (since moving, I'm probably going to get into it again some day), I do not really use ham radio for anything real other than just messing around. The Internet is a much better day to day long distance communication medium.
:)
Having said that, what keeps me involved is building my own gear. While you can spend thousands of dollars on stuff to get on the air, it is much more fun for me to grab the old soldering iron and make my own low power transmitters and receivers. Great way to keep up with electronics, radio theory, and all that fun stuff. There is even some neat work going on with software defined radios (mixing DIY radio building with Linux and programming
I find your average slashdotter tends to dislike ham radio as too old school and REALLY does not like the thought that ham radio is holding back BPL (along with a lot less vocal but more influential opponents like police, coast guard, FAA, etc). But hey, they also bought hook line and sinker into the hype that BPL is actually a viable broadband contender and not a snake-oil product.
Really though, if you get into it, and avoid (1) the elitist pricks who got their license back in the day and hate everyone newer then themselves, (2) the mindless cliques that form on most local repeaters (Pittsburgh being a nice exception), and (3) the losers who live on eham and qrz and attack basically everyone, you will enjoy it. I tend to stick with the build it yourself qrp stuff and the more interesting microwave band projects out there. There is a ton of non-obvious and not all that publicized things you can get into with ham radio that does not involve just trying to work all 50 states or 100 countries for no particular reason.
I am a Ham, but I've been out of hamming for a few years.
Let me answer some questions that weren't specifically in the title article, but that I went through in the same process (as I was getting ready to get rid of radio gear I hadn't used in years).
Practical use?
- Commmunications when commercial options are non-existent, suck or unavailable, such as major storms, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, the boonies. These darn radios will work fine during nasty storms, over hundreds of miles no problem. You'd be pretty shocked at the distance you can get even from a basic hand-held fraction-of-a-watt power transceiver. And at VHF frequencies, you don't even need line of site, it goes around hills somewhat.
- Stand-by option at best in more civilized and populated areas.
Cost?
- Low to none. Study, write exam, get license ($50-60), buy transceiver (used for $100, new and fancy $200 up to thousands). Here in Canada they did away with needing to renew your basic ham license in 2002 (? +/- a year or two) -- used to be it cost $20/year to have one. If you want to use a repeater, you should become a member with the group that runs the repeaters, but they won't mind if you try it out for a while as a beginner.
Why use ham, learn ham?
- Talk to friends
- Hobby, satillite comms, radio interest, general knowledge
- Backup reliable communication method
Downsides?
- Cannot discuss personal, business or non-public info over ham. Everything has to be clean. This, to me, limits its usefulness majorly. Everything can be heard by anyone (completely legal in these frequencies), and there is no expectation of privacy. Cannot encrypt any data traffic while using HAM frequencies.
- Can be kindof boring unless you have friends on HAM as well
- Personally, I don't care for 'chewing the rag', or BSing because you can. Talking for hours about nothing with people on the radio just because, and you aren't even allowed to gosip or swear. Better alternatives are IM, email or VOIP now-a-days.
- Not many women using it, just guys (same as early internet)
Upsides?
- Cheap
- If you like to talk and BS, you will find lots friends
There are a small number of hams doing interesting stuff, like working on optimal modulation strategies for data over HF, but there aren't many. And the ones that do that typically are designing cell phones as their day job.
As a lot of people have mentioned (some more politely than others), ham radio's appeal as a general-purpose communications service is pretty limited these days due to the sheer number of alternatives. It's still unbeatable in emergencies, but if emergency support isn't your thing, you may be left wondering what the point is.
:-P
That's a shame, because there is still some really-interesting stuff happening on the fringes. For the technically inclined, eBay has made it possible to obtain equipment and components for Amateur "homebrewing" that major military/commercial labs were damned lucky to have in the 70s and 80s. It is hard to overemphasize how cool that is. Even most hams don't realize that they can own better RF equipment and components than NASA had when they launched Voyager and Pioneer.
Ham radio gives you a great framework for engagement with every technology from software-defined radio to microwave communications to precision timekeeping. Build that DC-to-daylight receiver you've always wanted... the one the Feds won't let you buy off the shelf. Run your own "Amateur Deep Space Network" receiver site, or communicate with other people all over the world by bouncing your signal off the Moon. There is still more cool stuff to learn and do in Amateur Radio than you will ever have time to tackle... if you don't fall into the trap of thinking it's all a bunch of old farts carrying walkie-talkies around for no good reason. Like lawyers, 98% of hams give the rest a bad name.
There are a few links on my site (in the comment header) to various homebrew/experimental projects, but most of them are broken at the moment due to a hosting move that's taking way longer than it was supposed to. Anyone interested in the technical side of things is welcome to email me for advice and indoctrination.
In short: some parts of ham radio have benefitted tremendously from the advent of the Internet; but yeah, it's also true that many of the other aspects are less relevant than ever. You get out of the hobby what you're willing to put into it.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Good question. As someone who is a HAM radio operator, and has been around computers for longer than I have held a HAM license, I would have to say YES. In many ways HAM radio is more interesting to me than computers are.
I am not a gamer, or a programmer. I use computers as a tool in my profession, but am not so enamored over them as to let them consume my free time. I used to do a lot of hardware hacking, on older mainframes and then minis (DECs, Data General Novas, Honeywells, etc), but really found it limiting. As far as games, other than an occasional game of Majongg or Freecell, one of the last games I played ON the computer was probably StarTrek (from Creative Computing). My days of hacking my old BBS system are long gone, so I would have to take a serious C refresher course.
HAM radio, on the other hand, provides SO many variations of intellectual stimulation. I can design and build antennas from scratch one day, build up a transmitter in an Altoids box the next day. I can use any number of frequency bands to interact with people all over the world. I can work satellites, moonbounce, meteor showers... I can, and have, talked to the International Space Station! Oh, and I have talked with MIR and 4 of the shuttle flights, too.
There are so many modes of operation for Amateur Radio... CW, voice, a dozen or more digital modes... I can use equipment that I build myself, or as modern as my wallet would allow...
It's actually hard to sit down and describe the myriad of activities one can enjoy with Amateur Radio. Yes, there are a lot of fun things to do with a computer, too, and I don't put that down to those who enjoy computers, but for my buck, Amateur Radio wins out.
Just my nickle's worth!
73 de Paul, KC4YDY
The number 1 problem of working in a cubicle - 23 power cords, 1 outlet...
Keywords: "geeks", "lame social networking"...there's another kind? Something non-lame like myspace or IRC or texting or FPS taunting post-frag or masquerading as a female in a chat room or...?
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
As a licensed amateur radio operator myself (my callsign is KD5COL - I've been licensed since 1997), I can honestly say that amateur radio still has its place in this world. Besides what people think of hams (i.e. ragchewing, emergency communications), not all hams are geeks. My wife just recently became a ham herself and both of my parents (both near their sixties) are, as well as my biological father. Amateur radio presents unique opportunities that computers alone cannot offer.
... it's the camradarie of your friends and people you've never met sharing a similar hobby ... it's the uniqueness of having a call sign that identifies you amongst everyone else in the world ... it's the knowledge that your hobby is also a public service.
It's the fascination of learning and enjoying something you built yourself
Something else very cool also. In the state of Tennessee where I live, amateur radio operators have the privildge of obtaining emergency license plates for their automobiles. This allows the ham to be on the same level as police, fire, EMS, et al. You work with public officials in times of emergency to provide communications where nothing else is possible.
I enjoy the public service aspect of the hobby - I am frequently at public events providing communications for race officials, EMT, et cetera. People are always asking me questions, looking at my car's setup, checking out my HT (handie-talkie) and they seem to be genuinely interested.
Unfortunately, many of you don't have enough exposure to amateur radio to understand its usefulness and how we hams have advanced technology by experimentation.
A very good site to look at is http://www.hello-world.org/ Hello World - it explains a lot about amateur radio and how it's used.
As for the original author: get your license and enjoy it. Maybe we'll meet on 20 meters sometime!
ENJOY ES 73 KD5COL
Your email has been returned due to insufficent voltage.
The most interesting thing to me right now is reading all the old guys lament the FCC dropping the last of the Morse code tests to get a ham license on QRZ.com.
I don't have a license yet but will once the FCC proposal to end Morse code testing becomes law. I don't think I'll do much talking at first. Right now I'm more interested in shortwave listening, digital communication, and weather spotting. None of those interests require a ham radio license but it would be reqired to transmit if I wish.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
The true missionof Amateur Radio has naver changed...it was always supposed to be a service that would provide communications during a disaster. Ths disaster focus is more the focus today more then ever. With meager resources, I can setup a communications station that will work on a minimum of power and is capable of worldwide communications. The old focus used to be on the rag chew...case in point, in the 50's through the 70's how cool was it to talk to someone in Germany, Japan or Australia?? That's almost commonplace now, but the need for communicators still exists. Innovation still happens in Amateur Radio too. Digital Voice Modes (VoIP like protocols) are just now being deployed. Because there's always a need for straight analog FM transcievers, the digital modes are not taking off as fast but that's mostly because analog FM WORKS! IN any case, June 20th is Bring your HT to work day and I am going to try to get a new HT for it.....a Yaesu VX-2R. This radio is about the size of a recent cell phone and is very capable rig. Sure, it's not a high powered station but how cool is having a complete ham station that fits in your pocket??? HF rigs ain't going to get people interested....micro transcievers and digital modes will.
Gorkman
I think I'm kinda weird but I love listening to the air traffic control channel when flying on planes. I am not really interested in getting into amateur radio but I'd love to be able to listen in from my home. Every time I have looked into doing this it seems to require a lot of knowledge of radio. Can a radio expert explain a bit about listening in on air traffic control or some links about it? In particular I'd just like to listen into air traffic control stations.
mp3's are only for those with bad memories
I used to, but not anymore:
1) No practical use.
2) Redundant in emergencies
3) Taking up valuable bandwidth
4) User complains slowing down adoption of actual useful technologies like BPL
5) For hobby, there are tons of free internet solutions. Skype anyone?
Now, I'll admit that I'm taking a wild stab at #2. I assume that in actual emergencies, emergency personnel rely on other radio equipment than HAM, but I'm just taking a guess. But I think the other ones are pretty solid (save number one if number two is false).
St. Louis County Police Department - KAA519 - 155.1300MHz Be kind and try not to slashdot this guy's website too badly. http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/scan/stlfreq.html
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
The idea of simply communicating with people without wires is so banal I doubt you could get anyone under the age of 30 to think it cool. And talking to people in far away places? Internet. But I notice some talk in the comments about what could bring people back.
:-)
IP over radio. I mean, sure, we have wi-fi repeaters, etc., but there are so many other cool things to do with IP over radio. And considering the fun (and interest) people have in hacking wi-fi, it reminds me of the fun ham operators had. Maybe it's time to create a pure digital license? Create a low-cost digital packet radio that some one could build at home for a $100 worth of parts or less.
When the corporations start locking down the Internet, IP-Ham could become the next big thing for geeks. Heh, makes the idea of getting SPAM over an IP-Ham connection sound even funnier.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
I received my tech license back in 2001. (kc9aae) My friend and I both took the test together and passed, it was alot of fun. We studied for the test using online resources like: http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl
I enjoy all the different things you can do, like building antennas, aprs, weather stations, etc. Fun hobby, but it can get expensive.
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
I've been a licensed Ham since 1977, currently a General Class (finally upgraded from Tech+ last year). My wife has been licensed for almost three years, and my Dad (who got me into it in the first place) has only had two callsigns in the fifty-odd years he's been playing with radios.
The three of us use rigs in our cars for local communications, and that's about it. For me, it's a gas-powered radio that I can use to talk to certain friends without running down the battery in my cellphone. I'm sure that my dad still has some HF gear that has been gathering dust for many years, but he's planning to retire soon and may find himself getting back into it.
So I guess Ham Radio is still interesting, to people who like electronics and just want to do something different. But with so many alternatives available, particularly the internet, most kids and teenagers with an interest in technology get into computers and such because it's easier and cheaper and because so many of their friends already play with the stuff. It's much easier to find someone to teach you the basics and get you started with some used parts. And although the hobby has always encouraged experimentation, someone has already pointed out that you can buy gear off the shelf that's cheaper, smaller and easier to use.
Sadly, for most people Ham Radio only becomes relevant when there's a storm or a power outage and they can't use the communications methods that they're used to. Even police departments ask Hams for help in these situations. Our local club operates a station from inside the county's 911 center during emergencies.
You can't take the sky from me!
I got my Technician license (N9ONL) back in the early 90's in the Chicago area, and and was immediately enamored with packet radio. Interestingly, I actually hated TALKING over the radio--conversing via packet really did it for me. Hopping from nodes to node locally and around the world through "wormholes" and such was very cool stuff at 1200 baud, especially considering that 2400 baud modems were about as good as it got at the time. Connecting to BBS's was obviously the hot topic in the early 90's, but the idea of being able to connect simultaneously to multiple nodes on the same channel was just mind-blowing.
I got really interested in KA9Q TCP/IP packet operation, including variants like JNOS, and it's what probably launched me in understanding TCP/IP networking--obviously very useful today. I always waited and waited for native Windows TCP/IP packet drivers. You know, install a driver, hook up a serial-connected TNC, configure the settings, and voila, packet-based networking. Problem is that it never happened--(at least I don't think it did. Does anyone know of native Windows drivers (XP, preferably) that would facilitate TCP/IP packet connectivity?)
Though TCP/IP was considered the "icing" on the preverbial cake, interestingly, setting up simple digipeaters, local nodes, and packet BBS's were so simple and very fun. It was just amazing to be able to wirelessly connect to other computers in the area.
Probably the most exciting event was actually hearing a packet station in space! I honestly can't remember if it was MIR or a shuttle mission, but I do remember getting an copying the ID text. Very exciting!
I always hoped that someone would market a multi-band handheld HT that incorporated a TNC with a keyboard that would let me have a truely portable packet radio system. I think Kenwood still has a model or two with an integrated TNC, but it's quite pricy, and I don't know how input works....
Anyway, Ham radio filled a technological niche for me at a time when I was ripe for wireless data communication. Unfortunatly, the Internet reared it's head, and my packet radio days eventually faded. I still have my 2m HT, TNC, and software. I've been thinking lately of setting it up again to see what it'll do.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
A more interesting question would be why packet radio dint progress? i realize that the bandwidth was limited (9600 baud max? but i remember seend 1200 and 2400 more commonly). My understandingwas that it was basically a wireless mesh that covered the USA even if it was speed limited. I never understood why the HAMS and other gEEk's never looked at remaking the network with something more like wifi? The telco's would certainly have to smarten up and rethink if there was "another" net out there.
The old analog Cell Phones were able to be hacked to use as a low-power two-way duplex tranceiver that didn't use the cell tower. Near the band (at that time) was the Amateur Radio jockeys.
The modern Cell Phones are all digitall and encrypted, so perhaps we'll see a revival of two-way line of sight communication that also features some encryption of a sort. All the news today is about some people getting pre-paid phone service, and then discovering that the pre-paid metre is logged locally on the Cell Phone with proven success to demurr that count.
without prejudice
I'm a Technician, and the only reason why is because I have a really hard time learning morse (not sure why, I've tried several ways with no luck). For that reason I hope they go "no code" on all licenses soon (yeah yeah, I know all the arguements to keep it. Call me selfish ;).
Currently, I don't have an HT or rig because of money issues, but when I did, it was hella fun. I guess my interest got peeked when my friends and I got into CB radio in highschool. Funny, out of all of them, I was the only one who took it past the CB. Oh well, I enjoy it although the whole station id check and no slang is kind of annoying.
With packet radio and a laptop, is it possible to get net access in the middle of nowhere? Or do "no encryption" etc rules of amateur bands seriously limit the usefullness?
Nah, like any good hobby, it's about the people you meet.
If it weren't for Amateur Radio, I would have never met Bdale Garbee, prior to his becoming the Debian Project Leader, or any of the other great folks who are Hams.
+++OK ATH
Theres plenty of deep geekery going on still in Ham radio. Software defined radio for a start
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/
Not to mention all the GHz experimental work, digital modes experimentation, Earth Moon Earth transmission and you can still do new fundamental research into ELF natural phenomenon, build your own radio telescope - all done with gear developed by and for radio amateurs.
Of course the mainstream is more like stamp collecting by cb radio - a competition to work two way communications with as many different countries as possible.
But make no mistake theres lots of cutting edge geekery still to be found in radio.
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
Indeed! :)
I am an active QRP operator;)
VY 73 de SQ6EMM
Well I sort of got dragged into Ham Radio last year through school. I was working on a senior engineering design project and we were looking for an easy way to get data from a weather balloon to a ground station. It turns out there are some fancy amature radios available with 9600 baud modems built in, which made our life easier. So a few of my colleges and I got our Tech class licences one weekend and were totaly into the whole ham thing for about 2 months. Then we finished the project and I haven't touched my $200 radio since... -KG6YZK
Only if I can send and download at leat 10Mbits per second reliably for 1000 miles. Other than that, what the hell for? sending a dot and a dah doesnt do much nowadays with a file somewhere between 2.5G and 4G bytes.
I know I've heard a few famous geeks mention their early Amateur Radio
interests and/or activities, eg, on some of the talks that are archived
at:
http://itconversations.com/
I don't remember them all, but one of Cliff Stoll's MP3's (on that site)
goes into a bit of detail on his using Ham Radio skills to build a hand-
held radar-based speed-gun (after speeding cars run down a little girl's
cat or puppy, earlier in the story...)
I think Kevin Mitnick had a license (but may have lost it - when it was
needing to be renewed - as part of the consequences he got for releasing
his Internet worm, some years ago.
So, who ELSE is/was a ham, who also does/did more general geeky things?
---
Radio Hams & Open Sourcerers have a lot in common - helpful natures,
sharing ideas (src), exploring technologies of interest to themselves
& building up extentions to some of it, that does what they want done
---
My neighbor was a Ham as a kid; I could only see a 15m Dipole antenna
on his house, but it was a home-built one. He did the usual things...
converted ex-WW2 radios for Amateur bands (this is an old story...)
He went on to become a Doctor, who was able to build medical gear that
hadn't been invented when he needed it.
---
Most of the kids I knew as fellow-hams have done pretty well in techie
fields, so - even if it desn't top today's list of geeky hobbies, may-
be it should, at least for those who are aiming for jobs in engineer'g
and/or electronics.
I've been a ham for the last four years or so. I have the Technician class licence, which most slashdotters could pass with a little study. The internet does not replace ham radio..the net is infrastructure heavy, and everything must work. Ham radio needs an antenna and power source, which is why ham radio "reappears" after every major disaster. I have a ham radio in the car, which covers 1.8 mhz up to 470 mhz. Last night on the way home from work, I listened to Radio Austraila, the highway patrol, and truckers on channel 19. This radio (Icom 706) is my secret weapon traffic avoiding device. I chatted with some hams on 2 meters, too ! I've also found myself in the middle of a running road Rally, as a radio op for the Rally organizers, clearing stages for competition. Since this rally is over public roads, they must be closed prior to running-I'm a motorsport nut too, but ham radio literally got me on the course. Ham radio is a great vector to meet interesting people. Our secret geekdom comes from all over...had a good talk with my oil delivery guy, a fellow hammy. Eventually, morse code requirements will be dropped in the US, as they have been almost everywhere else in the world, and the technically inclined will be able to avoid the "hazing ritual" that is morse code. The amount of knowledge ham radio gives, from knowing how radio really works (WiFi is only a small part of radio...very small), to the people you meet, makes it a lot of fun. The cost is up to you...a used transceiver for HF, $400, a basic 2m rig and antenna for the car, new, $350, and it lasts forever. Ignore the flame wars on eham and QRZ.com, they don't represent real hamming. for a laugh, check out hamsexy.com ! Casey K2FIX
I've been going the other way and trying to learn high speed morse... it's frustrating but worth it, as I enjoy having a skill that few other people have.
I have to admit I let my licence slip this year, after having not used it for several. It's one of those social things that needs a critical mass of people to be interesting, and despite living in a fairly densely propulated area of the UK, I found very few people my age (at that time ~17) to talk to. The internet provided a much greater population density... so i went there.
...Carl (ex 2E1FNC)
From a techincal perspective it's still cool, but if you want to talk to people it's easier to go on the net...
During the wait for Hurricane Rita I got all my old CB gear out of the shed where it had been collecting dust since 80's and figured out SWR etc.
There is a ham store in the strip mall beside IH45 at the end of my neighborhood where we would go to gawk at the traffic that was not moving. As it started to sink in what we might be in for I went into the store and bought a 2 meter hand held partly because I always wanted to play with it, I had several days to kill, and I might need it. I enjoyed using it as a scanner during the event. I got my liscence a few weeks later. I listen from time to time. I talk on it every once in a while to make sure it still works. I use it on trips. I will be getting a multi-band for the vacation this year and I look forward to trying to broadcast at a gigahertz!
I would have to say no.
It totally depends. There is still a lot of experimentation going on in Amateur Radio. The problem as I see it in the US is that there are a lot of "islands" of activity. Most US Hams I come across are too involved in their own world and will take a long time to accept outsiders.
For example here in Palm Beach County, FL. There is a reasonable active packet group but most of the equipment still runs on 1200 baud and some links are on 9600 baud. In Europe 76K2 Baud is almost the norm with some links even running as fast as 1M5 baud!
I suggested experimenting with higher speeds but no one here wants to help.
Another great opportunity for experimentation is Digital Amateur Television. Again in Europe there have been several D-ATV repeaters that have been active for years while here in the US D-ATV is just starting.
In conclusion:
Do I still find Amateur Radio interesting? Yes, but it depends on where you live and what other Amateur Radio operators are doing around you.
Sjaak, W4RIS, ex-PA3GVR
what today's geek thinks about amateur radio? ... Do you think that we could see a renaissance of Ham Radio among 21st century techies?
Well such renaissance is already happening with Wifi: people doing COTS ad-hoc networks, wardriving etc. Many of these people are radio amateurs and the opening of the ISM band has just made it much cheaper to buy the equipment. The experimental frontier spirit is still strong. More traditional RA stuff has also benefited from the internet. People are hooking up VHF/UHF repeaters via IP over long distances, even worldwide.
If there's a downside, its the deterioration of the traditional ham. Before people had to take an interest in electronics and build a lot of stuff by themselves. And as people move to digi-modes or even start their hobby from them and the old ham skills, morse and SSB, will be forgotten. When disaster strikes, radio amateurs are the ones left standing. They're able to quickly setup flexible efficient communications networks from whatever equipment is at hand. However what you still need is experienced operators who are able to handle such communications and you cannot learn that by just sitting on your computer.
For example here in Finland we have a close-knit relationship between hams and the authorities, both emergency and the military. Time and time again we have demonstrated that in the absence of any support or infrastructure, hams are able to independently organize, setup and operate a nationwide communications network and provide the authorities with all the communications services they need.
What we need are geeks who are interested in everything, not just a narrow peak of the latest technology.
oh3gpj
www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
My involvement in ham radio is the occasional QSO or contest (Field Day, SS), using so called "boatanchors", or vacuum tube equipment I have restored or built from scratch. The only solid state rig I own is my 2 meter HT.
While there is plenty of fun to be had playing around with digital modes and microwaves (and I played a lot with packet in the early 90s), I spend my whole workweek dealing with modern electronics and digital doodads, and I find great enjoyment in working with the technologies of the past. The warm glow of a chassis full of tubes has a "soul" that boards full of silicon never did and never will.
So I'm hardly on the "cutting edge" of the hobby, but I still enjoy it nonetheless.
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
About four years ago I was getting bored with my computer hobby (and occupation), and I had been going to hamfests for years getting computer equipment. I decided to look into getting a ham license, and I am glad I did. I have always had an interest in electronics, and being able to experiment with a lot of bands and modes of communication has kept me in the hobby. There are lots of ham clubs across the country, and several good ones around my area (Milwaukee, WI, USA).
There are lots of sub groups to the hobby, specializing in areas like contesting, VHF/UHF/SHF weak signal work, public service events like bike rides, walks, digital (computer) modes, software radios, and lots more.
There will always be naysayers who say the hobby is dying, to me it just seems like it is evolving.
If you are interested in it, go for it, if you don't like it, move on to something else!
... if that's your best, your best won't do... - Twisted Sister
While I personally do find it appealing, I do think it is important that someone find it appealing.
One reason I think it important is the usefulness of Morse code: it was used to blink out the word torture by one of our Vietnam POWs during a filmed interview where he was required to pretend everything was hunky dory in the Hanoi Hilton. While this use it extreme, I think Morse code would be as quick a means of communicating as text messaging via cell phone. That is, the implementation and mastery of Morse code into a cell phone could/would be just as quick and effective means of communication as today's text messaging.
I'd actually pursue Morse code if I didn't think my atrocious (took a while to get that word) spelling would be a hinderance. But, if I found out it might actually help my spelling, I might then spend some time on it. I say some, because having learned Spanish and the Dvorak keyboard layout, I know what it takes to learn another language: time and attention.
So, thanks for being one of those people.
Oops!
Cliff Stoll's talks didn't come from ItConversations.com...
rather from (now defunct) TechNatCast.com, which preceded it.
"How soon we forget..."
I have been around Hams for twenty years and the tech has usually stayed interesting. During the late 80's packet radio was starting out. When most people were calling bbs's using modems, hams were sending wireless data. Check out Phil Karn's site. He has a lot of wireless experience as both ham and engineer responsible for much of the CDMA standard.
Want to start with some small radios and learn more about electronics at the same time? There are many interesting kits around if you look. You certainly don't have to spend huge amounts on radios to get started. I paid ~$120US for my VX-2R when they were first introduced. It makes a great general purpose scanner too.
Newer modes like PSK31 are incredibly efficient. A couple of watts of power and 31Hz of radio spectrum and you have error free world wide digital communication at 50wpm. It is difficult to audibly detect the signal while listening, even when you know it is there.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
as soon as I finish rebuilding a signal one, I'm testing back in, and former WN0CBZ will be torturing stray electrons again. it was a neat goal in 1969, and with all the natural disasters about, it's still relevant.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
You know, some of the folks doing Ham Radio
are a bit like folks who sail.
They're doing something that has roots way back in time.
Eg, using Morse Code (radiotelegraphy = CW mode) on radio
is akin to sailing without an engine...
both "modes" depend on technologies developed years ago.
Now, who ever asks folks who sail
whether Sailing is "still" interesting?
(It must be; otherwise, sailboat, etc. would never sell...)
Why should this article's question be asked ONLY of Radio Hams' hobby?
Perhaps telecoms or other [would-be] big spectrum users
would like to push Hams from their allocated frequencies.
I've been ham for 15 years now and I have an Extra class license - and its fun as long as you have friends who are into it. Far too often it seems like there are operators who have an elitest attitude that makes it hard to get involved locally.
For example - there are extra class hams who don't like other extra class hams because of the 5 wpm requirement. There are still hams who don't like or will not talk to no-code techs. What drives me nuts is these guys seem to be the most active so your more likely to run into these people online.
So for that I really haven't done much with it in a while.
As a 10-year old, I followed my dad's footsteps and became KA8JRN, then later N8FSR. It was a great way to stay in contact with him thru my parent's divorce back in the early 80s.
Late in high school, the interest faded a bit, but the underlying love of technology persisted. Teens and college students being social creatures, I wanted a pool of friends that were not middle-aged 40-meter ragchewers. So I started a campus broadcast radio station. Problem solved.
I credit the W1YK Amateur Radio club at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts for providing me a renewed interest in Ham Radio and smoothing what would have been a much harder college experience I had briefly at that institution. W1YK showed me that there was still a place for young kids in the hobby.
18 years later, I'm still proud of my hobby, happy to sport my Ham license place on the family minivan. The convenience of the Internet makes setting aside time for Packet or Satellite that much more difficult. And, sorry guys, forget ragchewing, the ultimate timewaster, when I'd rather be playing with my 3-year-old.
But the spirit of experimentation that fuels my interest in the hobby each day carries over to my experiences on the Internet and in my job. Heck, it differentiates me in a sea of lookalike IT consultants and gives me the edge I need in the market. I'm proud to be the one They call to hack and slash to success when the others are stopped cold.
I habitually take my 3-year-old to the local Swap-n-Shops, part flea market, part inspiration. We love 'em.
I'll defend this hobby to the death, but mostly for the things it gives back to me indirectly rather than directly. And, hey, I still reserve the right to ragchew on 40 meters if the mood arises!
73s/TTFN...
Makin' money, makin' friends, makin' whoopee and wearin' Depends
I only wish I could honestly claim that was a myth and that amateur radio was full of vibrant young geeks. But I'm 34 and I'm the youngest guy in the local radio club by a good 10 years, easily. That's OK, though - I still love everything about amateur radio. The FCC is poised to drop the Morse code requirement altogether, yet I still want to achieve proficiency in code just because it's fun. And while it's not strictly amateur radio, I still like listening to the nutjobs on the shortwave broadcast stations, too.
Yes and no.
No in that I don't really care to chat on VHF/UHF repeaters or 80 meter nets. When I go to a hamfest, I'd say that 80% of the hams there are people I really am not interested in knowing or being associated with. I'm not a big fan of the ARRL and hate the way that so many hams insist that "the league" is the hobby.
Yes in that I really enjoy some aspects. I have a great local ham club where I can go to a meeting and see 20+ people that I'm proud to associate with. The whole room isn't filled with olfactory challenging old white men. I used to regularly participate in public service events, from walks and bike rides to large scale disaster exercises, which was a thrill to do at the time and as the years pass I'm amazed how many people never do anything like that. I enjoy the technical side too, building kits and the occasional homebrew item. I think portable QRP and HFPack is exciting and if I had the time to get back into backpacking, I'd certainly be hauling some sort of radio along. Today I only really get on the air for disaster work (drills or real events) and some HF DX work on PSK.
I often get people that tell me that they could easily just get online and talk to someone in Brazil or Austria. I always answer with "well, have you?" Of course not. When is the last time your neighbor took his Nextel and participated in a mock airliner crash? Does your cousin take his CB with him when he goes backpacking?
I don't ever expect the hobby to be what it once was in the U.S. All the OM hams that got into the hobby after WW2 are leaving us. The excitement of just talking on a radio is almost completely gone. But there's plenty of excitement left.
You can pick about any semi recent natural disaster around the world and do some research on it and see where HAM radio was extremely useful. The single biggest advantage of HAM is that it requires ZERO in the way of middleman connectivity or middleman electrical power functionality.
To summarize, yes, there are still interesting things you can do with ham, but you can't just fire up a radio set and start running anymore; you need to be prepared to dump gobs of money and time into esoteric antenna arrays (and you'd better be landed, get proper permits, not piss off the neighborhood assoc) that can send signals into orbital space or modulate into arcane digital transmission modes.
In other words, if you want to do anything *really* interesting with ham, don't plan to have time to do or buy anything else except (a little) work and food.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
I have used morse code, since 1990 in fact. But strictly speaking, Morse code is just an encoding. Here, watch this:
FB OM UR 599 HR ES TX FER FB QSO K
There is no morse code there. There are no dots and dashes. What you are looking at is ASCII encoding of a lot of prosigns and abbreviations that are commonly used on CW.
Note there is nothing stopping you from sending, using Morse Code:
OK FRIEND I GOT ALL THAT, YOUR SIGNAL REPORT IS 599 HERE, AND THANK YOU FOR THE NICE CONVERSATION, OVER TO YOU
...except that the person on the other end would get impatient.
Anyway, that's the difference between encoding and language. The confusion arises because the language of Q prosigns and abbreviations are mostly used while doing Morse code.
Note that people do use many of those same prosigns and abbreviations while using RTTY or PSK31, and there is obviously no Morse Code involved there at all.
On a side track I wonder if anyone could tell me, is it possible to do imaging of planetary circuits with a standard size amateur dish? Also is it even possible to do radio astronomy with something like a foil fresnel lens you could unfold and lay on the ground with a vertical pole at the center. neat faq here. I have wondered about how to image with a radio telescope, but perhaps if you caused the pole to vibrate, or perhaps put the lens on a vibrating (scanning) platform? Well thanks for the info and pick up the license, why not?
But it is sadly true that in the US interest in CW has declined precipitously. If I tune across the CW end of 20 metres during a work day, there will usually be only one or two signals from the US (at least that's all I hear here in Colorado). Fortunately, CW still seems to be going quite strong in the rest of the world. Although in Colorado conditions need to be fairly decent for us to hear them.
Personally, my main problem with Ham radio has been the "no commerce" and "no encryption" rules.
Even if you had the license and radio to make a call throught the "phone patch", you couldn't order a pizza, it would be technically illegal, along with anything that could be considered "commerce". And "no encryption" meant not being able to use "packet radio" for something as simple as personal email without literally broadcasting it publicly. No thanks.
If a few channels of Amateur bandwidth were liberated from these two regulatory relics, I think we would see see the same interest we see in WI-FI excite Amateur radio as well. A few small slivers of "long range wi-fi" bandwidth could spark an Amateur radio renaissance, and amazing tech advances, as in the past.
I'm not holding my breath, though. Giving Americans more freedom, especially for private long-distance communication, would probably not be too fashionable in Washington these days. Pray for peace, and better days to come.
Did you call him Mel, because that was his name?
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
How can you not be excited when you have IRLP? The fusion of the internet and radio.
My UID is prime is yours?
Am I the only one who thinks that applying for a ham license nowadays is the equivalent to holding up a sign "investigate me" sign, or calling the NSA 800 number and saying "please open a file on me!" ?
I'm tempted by ham now and then, but I don't think I'd ever get a license. If Ham is the last means of communication out there, you can be DAMN sure its monitored by Uncle Sam.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
You missed the part about experimenters. The guys that do autonomous GPS tracking of high power rockets. The guys that launch amateur satellites. Autonomous robots using packet radio. All sorts of interesting, experimental projects that are out there if there weren't amateur bands available (and no, 100mW on 49.1 is not enough for any of those projects)
If you think it is not interesting, just try chatting with an astronaut onboard the ISS. People have been saying ham radio is outdated since the 1950s when long distance became available to almost everybody. Yet the number of licensed amateurs in the US continually increased to a peak in 2003. And I would be very surprised if there is not more growth in the future. Merging computers and radio, I enjoy writing my own PSK-31 software. People say CW is outdated and useless. I have been in areas with severe thunderstorms where the static crashes made everything but CW unusable. And it sounds like many of the people replying to this list are incredibly short sighted. After a minor earthquake telephones, cell and landline, are useless as everybody is trying to ask everybody they know "Did you feel it?" When power goes out I do not have enough battery backup to operate my computer and cable modem for one hour, but I could operate my radio for days. VoIP is much more reliable than 20 or 40 meter communications, but in a disaster ham radio is far more reliable than internet or phone. And it has been very easy for me to find somebody out of the disaster area to pass a message to relatives about my situation.
I think that many computer applications, and to some extent certain kind of programming, are a little too much like watching TV, and harm your brain rather than enhancing it. Of what's going on today, I think the Make-magazine stuff is probably the most exciting and most likely to provoke actual thought... Kids doing robotics is pretty close to what kids doing ham radio was when I was young. Below is a meandering story of how I got from a 5 year old ham to today, back into ham radio, and reading Slashdot too.
In kindergarten, I remember bringing electrician's hot-side testing screwdrivers to show-and-tell ("Now you just stick this screwdriver into the electric socket and the neon bulb will light if it's the hot side"), and rigging up telephone networks with old handsets and batteries. After having learned morse code at age 5 and gotten on the air under my father's call (he got his license in response to my interest), I finally learned enough to read the whole test and got my license at age 7. Now my kids are about the same age, and found learning morse code to be fun; they talk to each other, and recently had a poster accepted at a peer-reviewed conference, comparing speed and errors in Morse code and typing! (Ok, it was the 2nd grade science fair.)
Soon I got interested in computers, but there weren't any actual ones to distract me; well, there was one in town, and it used punched cards. It was a Honeywell Special 200, the first IBM Clone, though it was a clone of an IBM 1401... Then there were the PDP-8's that were connected to Stanford via phone line for one of the first "computer-aided instruction" projects. I met the guys who maintained the Model 28 teletypes for them and they got their ham licenses after my father and I got ours...
When two-meter FM became popular, I helped establish the first local repeater, probably the only one within 100 miles. We had to do HAAT testing and I learned about altimeters, topographic maps, and government forms... By the time I graduated from high school and went to MIT, I found other pursuits -- PDP-10's, Lisp, classes... I pretty much got off the air. But ham radio gave me an entre into an entire world that wasn't available when I was growing up.
After a few years spent exploring 4x5" photography, I started doing some wireless mobile device work, and poor signal strength led me to get up on the roof and install a 1.9Ghz repeater. I felt a strange familiar feeling, and when my wife said, "I don't care how many antennas you put on the roof," I filed the fact away. When a co-worker shows up with a Yaesu VX-2 two-meter and 70cm handitalki that receives DC-to-daylight and said it was $120, I went ahead and bought it. I'd kept my ham license renewed, and used it once or twice in the intervening 20 years, but I had to re-learn lots of stuff. I wore the HT on my belt (along with two calculators and a slide rule, a hiptop, and a blinking LED pen) for the Halloween party at PARC and won what can best be described as the five-sigma prize...
A bit of web surfing led me to QRZ.com, EHam.net, and of course ARRL, and I found out about a local club meeting taking place that night. So I went with the co-worker, and found a bunch of pleasant nerds, schoolteachers and librarians, firefighters, electronics designers, computer scientists, and other random people.
At the club meeting, a satellite communications engineer told me about recent developments in DSP-based communications that used a PC sound card to modulate and demodulate; my extensive 20-year stint in programming made me think this might be interesting, so I bought a
Nor I.
--N0QXW
TIAVAS HS ENI I RNG S YO Y I N G
Even the biggest of ham fests have gotten smaller, and the age range has skewed older...
It'll be years and years but the computer age killed the radio (star).
We are surrounded, indeed, inundated with technology, but for the vast majority of people, their only interest is to consume it. They don't care how it works. Hams care how things work.
You can do some incredibly cool things with ham radio, and my ham background (VE7LDH) has served me well in my work (telecommunications). But as an active ham? I haven't attended a ham club meeting in years. The same old grey haired people (almost all men), the same old cliques, the same old conversations (many of which were more about computers than ham radio anyway). Too many throwbacks stuck in the Good Old Days of the 1950s. Transistors? DSP? What's that?
AMSAT has enormous geek potential, but in my entire involvement with ham radio (since 1993) the party line has been "give us more money and maybe some day we'll launch the super-duper satellite of your dreams". They launched one, all-but-bankrupted the organization doing it, it worked for a while, then it partially stopped working, then it packed up completely. Now they're back in Give Us Money mode.
I want ham radio to be interesting. I think it's a great incubator for techies. Real in-depth geeks, not techie-as-fashion-statement. But at the moment, I'm not finding it as interesting as I'd like to. I think that's a shame. I wonder what happened.
...laura
I have been a radio amateur for more than twenty years, but this year I gave back my license and sold out everything. Why ?
;-) ).
Well, I entered into ham radio when I was 15 years old, because it was a very exciting hobby: plenty of thinghs to learn about radio, antennas, propagation, lot of fun with ham radio friends (at that time we set up a very strong group who took part to contests, field days, DXpeditions, and some nice girls joined us as well
I spent lot of time contesting, making difficult contacts in HF and VHF bands. Then computers arrived: and so go on with packet radio, signal processing, computer controlled receivers, adding fun to fun. I also had a lot of fun writing some software for ham radio, and internet added just more fun to the fun.
But unfortunately during these very last years thinghs changed dramatically: no more funny people around (the average radio amateur now is a 70-something years old, and usually very, very ugly), girls disappeared entirely, and what is worst, it became apparent that people involved into ham radio were more interested into spending money into new shiny rigs to show up around, rather than into learning how to get the most out from current equipment. Radio contacts became also very boring, all the contacts now look the same ("you're 59, QSL 73 bye bye"). Packet clusters finally killed the fun of chasing rare stations.
Is all this worth the time and money ?!? I decided it wasn't, so I gave up.
IMHO I see no more reasons for ham radio to exist, nowadays. And please do not tell me about technichal advancements reached by radio amateurs! New technologies used by radio amateurs are actually developed by a very small number of people, and they cannot be exactly be called "advanced", if compared with what industry is doing. What has enough market potential is lobbied by ARRL and other ham radio organizations, and finally big firms jump into the market to make out some profit. Packet radio, APRS, and now SDR are some clear examples of this process: the average radio amateur simply puts some money out from his pocket, and here it is the new technology, ready for use!. What do you learn from this (apart wasting money) ?!?
To defend ham radio it remains maybe the help that amateurs can provide during emergencies, but I believe that organizations like Red Cross, Emergency, and so on could (and should) develop their own emergency networks (and I think that some frequencies currently assigned to ham radio should rather be used for this purpose).
As you can see, the game is really over.
I intend to stay on as a storm spotter for the National Weather Service, so someday that might involve ham radios when the next F5 tornado pulls down half the cell phone towers in a given area. But that would really be the extent of what my ham usage would be.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I have many fond memories of those times. We moved around quite a bit as my parents worked for the Navy. Every time we moved we knew we were settled in to "home" when dad would put up his tower (I suppose it was a 30' tower you could climb). The HAM shack smelled of metal, dust, and ozone - much like the pilot's shack we shared when taking flying lessons. There's a distinct smell of things that are painted Government Issue gray.
The things I appreciated about HAM radio are probably different than other people. I appreciated there was a formality an etiquette you do not find in Internet communications. There really wasn't anything like "flaming" on the radio; everyone was courteous and so excited to make a contact. I learned about phonetic alphabet just from listening in and use it still this day when I am on the phone and have to read off letters to someone. Mostly, and these are memories of a kid, I loved the wall filled with QSL cards.
I think if I did HAM radio today I would do it just to collect QSL cards. They are beautiful and a tangible "proof" of a contact. There are some things like that on the Internet (like Postsecret I suppose) but there's something cool about getting a acknowledgement that we spoke together and made contact. They would have exotic stamps from other countries and interesting art on the front with the sender's handwriting, often in highly stylized scrawl, on the back.
All my dad's QSL cards are washed away in the lagoon or bay somewhere and I'm saddened by that. As an artist, these are the things I learned from HAM radio.
Lane Myer: I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it.
Go to Hamfests! Join you local RA! Participate in nets!
After meeting many interesting people, you would be amazed what you can learn and how it builds your interest in the subject!!
Sure. "The Internet" or portions thereof could be shut down tomorrow, either nationally or internationally for regulatory or other reasons (it always amazes me how many people don't understand this). Worse, if the telcos get their way, we'll have to pay for decent performance. Since, in spite of pleas by folks like Berners-Lee, I believe this will happen, a lot of 'net geeks like me may start thinking about an alternative infrastructure. Yes, I know spectrum is also controlled, but it takes a little more time to get through the bureaucracy...
Just my two cents.
Remember all the excitement over PSK31? It was the first taste of what people could do with a sound card and the processing power of even a crummy computer. I first ran it on a Pentium 233MMX (my 486/66 couldn't quite do it). With Linux, of course. :-)
People have now built stripped down little radios that plug in to a sound card and use software to make all sorts of interesting noises.
I'd be surprised if even one ham in 1000 could tell you exactly how PSK31 works, but that's other matter...
...laura
Ive been a ham for awhile, KB0ATG, and found amateur radio to be very viable, especially as a free access communications service. Like in passing messages during Katrina, or doing emergency civil work like stormspotting or helping with a charity walk event. although the spectrum freedoms are still shrinking, there is still alot of research that can be done in the areas of radio based communication and networking, like Zigbee and other radio based networks. Im proud to be a ham, it has its own class, much like private pilots; Not everyone gets to be one without some qualification.
I recently put an older-generation 'rock' (crystal oscillator) -based VHF Amateur radio into my car. This 30+ year old radio still functions well; it is still completely inter-operable with equipment bought yesterday (using various techniques in ICs) or any time between, and actually is interoperable with 60 year old equipment.
I can use this equipment to talk via repeaters to folk all along the eastern seaboard of Australia, or via IRLP with people all over the world.
Hands up anyone with even a 10 year old mobile phone in everyday use.
de Peter in VK1
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
Actually, limiting the question to "Ham Radio" is too specific. The HF frequency has been historically the most interesting, because of it's unique propogation. These days, that worldwide propogation simply isn't as desirable as it used-to be.
OTOH, communications in other frequencies have skyrocketed. Digital Satellite TV/Radio/Internet cover most of the planet. Cell towers are going up everywhere. Wireless communications with 802.11 is incredibly popular, and some cities are being fully covered. Digital terrestrial TV/Radio promise to seriously increase the number of people recieving transmissions via the airwaves. et al.
So, while voice communications over HF seem to be declining, I expect you'll see most people refocusing their efforts in higher frequency digital communications. 802.11 certainly has the potential to bring the same kind of community aspect (and do-it-yourself improvents) as Ham has, except it will be digital content of every kind, including music and high-def videos, not just voice communications.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
At an electronics sale I overheard two old men in flat caps sadly discussing the death of their hobby. "The problem is that the type of person who would have been interested in ham radio when we were younger, has the internet now" one remarked sadly to the other. "They just don't see any point in amateur radio any more."
The really strange thing is that when I tell this story to girls, they almost always say "Oh, how sweet!" or words to that effect.
I really, really feel that's a bad attitude which is really hurting the hobby.
73, Jarett
KC2KOA
+++ATH0
Why is the popularity waning?
Ask yourself this;
- Would you like to be called '21st century techies'?
- Who is on the other side?
yuck.