ARLA/CLUSTER: Re: The Reality of Amateur Radio in 2018

[Agnus]

CT1DVU Agnelo

A ter, 27/03/2018, 12:49, Agnus <agnelo  gmail.com> escreveu:

> Talvez vender a estação e usar um bom telemóvel e uma boa ligação à net.
> E goodbye radioamadorismo.
>
>
> A ter, 27/03/2018, 09:59, João Costa > CT1FBF <ct1fbf  gmail.com> escreveu:
>
>>
>>
>> 2018-03-27 2:17 GMT+01:00 CT1EIZ <hamradio  megahertz.shop>:
>>
>>>
>>> <http://megahertz.shop/lists/lt.php?tid=e0tbBVUPDQsEVx4HV1AAGQJTVF1MAAcLAxQGUwJfBgEDBVxSBVNEB1BVBAIGAQYZBAIEBEwNAQoDFFVVBwQYAQsCAAVWDloBBwNSGgsHUwxUUlVQTAtTClkUAFBUBRgPCgcMHAkADAECAwVRBlBRAQ>
>>>
>>> *The Reality of Amateur Radio in 2018*
>>>
>>> by Chris G7DDN
>>> <http://megahertz.shop/lists/lt.php?tid=e0tZU1ICDgMCBB5VBAdUGQICBFRMWFMCWRQGUVdXDAJVAwAEBFFEB1BVBAIGAQYZBAIEBEwNAQoDFFVVBwQYAQsCAAVWDloBBwNSGgsHUwxUUlVQTAtTClkUAFBUBRgPCgcMHAkADAECAwVRBlBRAQ>
>>>
>>> What is the greatest hobby on earth? Now there’s a question!
>>>
>>> For many of you reading this article, the answer will be clear – Amateur
>>> Radio. It’s a hobby that delights, excites and, at times, frustrates in
>>> probably equal measures!
>>>
>>> But it is also a hobby that has historically pushed the boundaries of
>>> technology – and often asked questions no-one had even thought of asking.
>>>
>>> *The Pioneers*
>>>
>>> I love the fact that the history of our hobby is littered with the
>>> regulatory authorities of their day allowing us access to bands considered
>>> “useless� and then watching as we showed over time what immense value they
>>> could have – yes, even the most supposed “line-of-sight� bands.
>>>
>>> It is somewhat ironic today that the most in-demand spectrum across the
>>> world commercially is VHF/UHF and Microwave, the most “line-of-sight� bands
>>> discovered in the 20th Century.
>>>
>>> Here in the UK, large swathes of this spectrum are constantly being
>>> re-jigged and subsequently “sold off� to the highest bidders (something
>>> that has always struck me personally as slightly obscene, but that’s
>>> another story…)
>>>
>>> *Back to reality*
>>>
>>> The reality though for perhaps the majority of Hams on a day-to-day
>>> basis in 2018 is not so rosy.
>>>
>>> I switched on 160m the other day and was faced with S9 of noise across
>>> the band. It was S5 only a couple of years ago. I’m lucky apparently – many
>>> people are getting S9+20dB or more of noise, on several bands…
>>>
>>> As Hams, we face challenges every day from local sources of
>>> interference; power-line adapters, non-compliant devices imported from
>>> abroad, hissy routers, noisy house appliances, power supplies and all other
>>> manner of electronic hash. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better…
>>>
>>> Then we have the Home Owner Associations coupled with the newer
>>> restrictive covenants that stop us putting up antennas, whether it be an 80
>>> metre long wire or a 60 foot high tower. We have neighbours complaining
>>> about eyesores and about interference from “that Radio Ham� up the road.
>>>
>>> *We* might think an antenna mast is a thing of beauty, but we have to
>>> concede that most of our neighbours will disagree – sometimes, most
>>> embarrassingly, led by our own XYLs!
>>>
>>> *A Means of Escape*
>>>
>>> For many, portable operation offers some escape from this, but not
>>> everyone has the motivation to climb a mountain with QRP gear and play
>>> SOTA, very laudable though that is.
>>>
>>> If the only Ham Radio we can play with is limited to reasonable weather
>>> and a trip out, most of us are not going to be playing a lot of radio that
>>> many days of the year, are we?
>>>
>>> At least mobile operation helps out here and has saved the day for many
>>> of us on occasions.
>>>
>>> *Perceptions*
>>>
>>> Then we struggle with the fact that we are perceived, rightly or
>>> wrongly, as being old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy and out-of-touch.
>>>
>>> When you consider what Hams have contributed to the history of
>>> Communications, this is the height of irony.
>>>
>>> The very people who, in effect, discovered and perfected modern-day
>>> communications, that everyone from schoolkids to governments rely on, are
>>> now reviled as being as old-fashioned as 78rpm shellac discs!
>>>
>>> *Shall we just give up then?*
>>>
>>> So what is the point of continuing in the hobby? Many have decided they
>>> won’t!
>>>
>>> The numbers leaving the hobby, anecdotally at least, seem to be
>>> increasing. I often see ads online where complete stations are for sale,
>>> and where the owner says something like “giving up after 35 years – too
>>> much noise – too much hassle…�
>>>
>>> Now you may be fortunate enough to live somewhere really electrically
>>> quiet – or you might be able to afford a huge farm or ranch in the
>>> countryside where there is little or no electrical noise – but the vast
>>> majority of us are not going to be able to do that.
>>>
>>> *Another way out?*
>>>
>>> Is there a sense of “If we can’t beat them, join them�?
>>>
>>> Is one solution to take Ham Radio and move it into that realm that we
>>> perhaps secretly despise and yet simultaneously almost adore?  The online
>>> arena?
>>>
>>> I find it slightly odd that, as hams, we are more than happy to embrace
>>> the internet and computers when it suits us – for example, CW-ers make
>>> extensive use of the Reverse Beacon Network, Datamodes enthusiasts embrace
>>> programs like PSK Reporter – DX-ers rely on their preferred cluster, and so
>>> on.
>>>
>>> We all probably have our favourite logging software, our favourite
>>> contesting programmes and websites we frequent, even if it is just to have
>>> a moan!
>>>
>>> *It’s too scary!*
>>>
>>> But are we just a little *too* apprehensive to “go the whole hog� and
>>> accept the Internet for what it already actually is? A man-made alternative
>>> method of propagation? Is this one reason why the whole “Network Radios’
>>> phenomenon is so difficult to comprehend?
>>>
>>> One well known UK ham (and regular author for one of our Amateur
>>> magazines here) wrote to me with commendable honesty recently. He explained
>>> that he was struggling in his thinking about the Internet being a form of
>>> propagation, despite the fact that intellectually he can see that it
>>> clearly is!
>>>
>>> He was, in effect, trying to come to terms (just as I did initially)
>>> with even *understanding*that there could exist another form of
>>> propagation for our signals, man-made at that.
>>>
>>> He did go on later to acknowledge that the *real* issue for him, was
>>> not that that this form of propagation existed, but that it was “always
>>> there�. (To be fair, that does make it different!)
>>>
>>> *Does it have to be hard work?*
>>>
>>> But this got me thinking too!
>>>
>>> Have we got so used to Ham Radio being so much like “hard work� that if
>>> technology creates a means of propagation that makes our lives easier, we
>>> almost *have* to pooh-pooh it?
>>>
>>> Is there a bit of an attitude issue? You know the kind of thing… *“I
>>> had to work hard to work VP8G, so why should **you** be able to do it
>>> more easily?�*
>>>
>>> *A new playground*
>>>
>>> In 2018, the technology available to Hams has provided us with a new
>>> playground (internet propagation) – it’s similar to, and yet very different
>>> from, the old playground (ionospheric & tropospheric propagation – which by
>>> the way, is still there for us too – it hasn’t gone away, we can and
>>> *should* still use it!)
>>>
>>> Who says we can’t play in both playgrounds at once? Surely it is a case
>>> of both methods of propagation being usable, if that is what makes you
>>> happy?
>>>
>>> There is something in human nature that doesn’t like others having it
>>> easier than we had it, but I would love to see Amateurs being open to be
>>> more accepting of new technologies in the hobby and realising that 21st
>>> Century Amateurs’ interests are, by virtue of the times we are living in,
>>> just *different* from those of 20th Century Amateurs.
>>>
>>> There’s nothing wrong with that – it just is what it is!
>>>
>>> *The License Issue*
>>>
>>> For some of us, it’s difficult to get our heads around the new
>>> technologies, simply because of all the hard work we had to put in to gain
>>> our licenses. This now could be perceived as partially redundant, once we
>>> get our heads around the “Internet as a means of propagation� argument.
>>> After all the Internet is open to everyone…
>>>
>>> We all have a tendency towards defensiveness – this is partly because
>>> *we* have something other people don’t have – a Ham license.
>>>
>>> But again, putting this in perspective, and oversimplifying a little,
>>> possession of this means that we just have specialist knowledge about
>>> (mostly) building and testing transceivers (and maybe some knowledge of CW)
>>>
>>> Are these the highest priority for a lot of hams these days?
>>>
>>> I like what the RSGB President, Nick Henwood G3RWF, observed at his
>>> Society’s National Convention last October, that 20th Century Hams were
>>> more likely to be interested in mechanical & electrical solutions to
>>> problem solving, whereas 21st Century Hams are far more likely to look for
>>> solutions to issues in software.
>>>
>>> That is an interesting way of viewing the change in the hobby over the
>>> last 30 years or so…
>>>
>>> *Where does all this lead?*
>>>
>>> Who knows? Isn’t that the most exciting thing?
>>>
>>> SDR technology is transforming HF, computer technology is transforming
>>> the likes of CW, Datamodes & DX-ing, (just look at the rise of FT8!) and
>>> modern communications technology and its concomitant infrastructure is
>>> providing us with the ultimate change – an alternative means of propagation.
>>>
>>> *So have fun with RF – in all it’s forms!*
>>>
>>> So yes, go ahead and play with those Network Radios that use the
>>> Internet – make Ham-friends around the world.
>>>
>>> Communicate with each other, use software, use Boat Anchors, use QRP CW,
>>> use valve radios, use big antennas, use minimal antennas, use
>>> internet-connected nodes, take part in contests, work through satellites,
>>> use D-STAR – do as much as you wish!
>>>
>>> Have fun with RF in all its many forms – the Ham bands, yes, but also
>>> the cellular bands, the wi-fi bands & the bluetooth bands – *especially
>>> if it gives you pleasure!*
>>>
>>> After all, isn’t a hobby ultimately supposed to make us happy?
>>>
>>> Perhaps the saddest “Reality of Amateur Radio in 2018� is that, to
>>> listen to some folk in the hobby, you could be forgiven for thinking that
>>> it’s main purpose was actually to make Hams as miserable as possible!
>>>
>>> Let’s use *all* the wonderful technologies available to us in 2018 and
>>> beyond – after all, next year there will probably be yet more new toys in
>>> the playground!
>>>
>>> I, for one, can’t wait!
>>>
>>> © March 2018 – Chris Rolinson G7DDN
>>> <http://megahertz.shop/lists/lt.php?tid=e0tZU1ICDgMCBB5VBAdUGQICBFRMWFMCWRQGUVdXDAJVAwAEBFFEB1BVBAIGAQYZBAIEBEwNAQoDFFVVBwQYAQsCAAVWDloBBwNSGgsHUwxUUlVQTAtTClkUAFBUBRgPCgcMHAkADAECAwVRBlBRAQ>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>
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