2011-02-24 15:34:36

Good morning,

I would like to ask the AG community about the viability of getting into Ham Radio, particularly DX'ing, in this modern day. Has the BVI Amateur community declined since the advent of VOIP and Internet?

Thank you for your time,

-Chees,

2011-03-06 22:00:25

In short: yes.

In slightly longer: Ham radio these days is, for the most part, full of sticks in the mud who resist any and all change.  The ham radio community could be doing nifty things with packet/digital modes, but they're not. At least in Canada, we still have a Morse code requirement. And you still need to know enough electronics to build your own radio. Yet, nobody does that anymore. And the course materials, last I checked, require you to know nothing about digital transmission and computer/packet switched networking.  How we can expect hams to push the bounds of technology and radio, while requiring them to know things that were cutting edge in 1962, while resisting all forms of spectrum and mode change, I don't know.  Unless something drastic is done, the entire hobby will be dead sometime in the next thirty years.  DXing to Germany and talking on your two metre handheld while driving are no longer interesting, when I can use my cell to call Germany at no charge at any time of the day, while driving.  If ham is going to matter, it needs to start doing interesting things again. That's why, at least for me, I became a ham: to do interesting things. Now all the interesting things are happening online, and HAM isn't doing much other than emergency response.  If I wanted to be involved in paramilitary and emergency rescue work, I'd join the national guard or local equivalent. If that interests you, become a HAM.  If what interests you is doing cool things with technology, don't bother.

73s,
VA3SEP

2011-05-15 20:39:56

I stand against your comments about the radio HAM community as being "sticks in the mud".  Being able to propagate a sine wave thru 'space', is the first requirement of this game.   If you can't achieve that, then you'll never even get out of the gate.   As being a registered "HAM" as well, I appreciate the ability to "build" a transmitter or at least fully understand it's workings and the understanding of just what is going on when I'm blasting 100 Watts of RF energy into the space occupied by everyone including myself.  Lets hope this portion of a HAMS knowledge never dies.  With out a physical layer to ride your packets on, you go nowhere fast.  If you would like to see spectrum and mode changes then by all means forward your concerns to those bodies that can advocate your change.   What worries me is not so much the change but where they are putting it.   The spectrum is very full and everyone wants more all the time.  Soon all analog TV stations will stop transmitting and will be fully digital.  By doing this a very large amount of bandwidth becomes available. 
The importance of maintaining what little bandwidth of "free space" now available to the HAM must stay in place as it has for decades.  Please help preserve this.  I'm most certainly not against the technological changes and all the "interesting things".   It's just, HAM radio holds tons interesting things just the way it is.  Its use of the small amount of spectrum available to it is very important.   I’m not disagreeing with you however, the ability to go "online" is very important too.   Keeping this inside glass pipes is by far the best way of transporting its, intelligence.  Both are fun and interesting, HAM, the study of  radio wave propagation and “online”, the movement of  packets over a medium.  %%%%%%%%  Just having fun with life, audiohound.

2011-05-16 16:19:01

I agree with you that knowing these things is important. Knowing how to file corporate taxes is important, too. But it is neither interesting or cutting edge.  We used to be able to attract people to the hobby because we were doing interesting, cutting edge things.  Now, however, we are not.  Instead, we've fallen back on crying about emergency preparedness, and the historical importance of Morse code.  As someone under 30, this sounds suspiciously like making up excuses for why a collection of individuals over 65 do not want to change with the times.  The local clubs I've been to do not have a single member under 60, and don't do anything other than build radios that could have easily been built in 1971 that they don't use, and using much better manufactured radios to participate in emergency drills and contests.  Most hams, in my experience, know nothing about digital technology or networking, and that's where everything important is happening today.  Personally, I have completely abandoned the hobby.  I renew my license just in case, and I do field day to keep my skills from going rusty, but that's about it. Wake me up when someone is doing something with HAM that everyone else isn't already doing in a more practical, more modern manner. 

Your point that what hams know is important for people to know is well taken.  However, it's important for people to know those things only if they have a job that requires it.  Radio waves are, in todays modern age, of specialized or historical interest only.  The people inventing what's new on the cutting edge of communications don't know about them, and don't need to.  They leave that stuff up to others.  I really hope ham isn't in transition from a dynamic hobby into a dull technical requirement for some specialized fields of work. Unfortunately, from where I stand, that does seem to be what is happening.