As many amateur radio enthusiasts will tell you, amateur radio is a hobby, as much as amateur radio enthusiasts. It should be an exciting and vibrant place, but as those who venture into it sometimes regret to find out, it may not be. The close-knit community is interested in using a $1,000 radio station to chase DX (long-distance contact), growing age, and the curiosity of many amateurs about disaster communications. This is what [Robert V. Bolton, KJ7NZL] mentioned in an open letter to the amateur radio community, entitled "Ham Radio needs to embrace the hacker community more than ever."

In it, he lamented that the influx of people who used disaster preparedness as a reason was the culprit for the loss of amateur radio sparks. He suggested that amateur radio enthusiasts should respond by expanding their appeal to hackers. Community. He said that the focus should be shifted from emergency communications, and topics such as software-defined radio and digital models should be put first. Finally, he talked about the establishment of a hacker-specific amateur radio discussion channel to provide a conversation space suitable for our community.

Given our experience in the amateur radio industry, we will definitely agree with him. This hobby provides unparalleled opportunities for analog, mixed signal, digital, and software patching. It follows the best traditions set by early radio enthusiasts about a hundred years ago, but sometimes seems to have been lost for people like us. Up the direction. A few years ago, our colleague Dan Maloney expressed this in words. If you follow the path of [KJ7NZL], you might be better than reading Dan’s long-running 50-dollar ham series from the beginning. Bad.

Title image: Unknown author, public domain.

Ham Radio is the original hacker community. There are still many people who are producing large amounts of open source software and hardware to experiment with amateur radio.

Rudolph Wratten (KA5PIU) Amateur radio is no longer as risky as it used to be. This is urgent! Need to stop! , We have a pandemic. On January 1, Texas will cut off the state's electricity supply. California and Mexico will notice this. Most people go out and buy everything, but pay the rent. The others have moved away. in the case of? It has already started.

I really need to say to those ham veterans who think that new ham operations need to learn more codes. And build your own antenna or radio there. Your hobby... Those days are gone forever. It's so sad to see this. A small group of old people will die with the radio, leaving nothing behind. I have heard of people who work hard to get a full license to run all the bands there. What I heard is. I did this, so you have to do it. Times have changed. As we all know, money is hard to buy.. I am 60..amd in Australia 45 years ago you paid for your cb license.. Not now...it’s good because no one is on it. Hear if there are young people who are spending $1,000 on second-hand equipment. or not. Ask him to join a ham group and say that 10 lessons make him eligible to use the radio. Show him the frequencies that he might only use, and stay away from those that he cannot use. This is not for the stage of dying and privet snobbery...I have wasted my money and found that there is no one in Chanel...High frequency band. When Chanel has no one, do you think I will spend thousands of dollars and comply with fcc rules and regulations. Take a good look at the future of amateur radio. It might be much better than this

I agree, can you recommend a good sdr transceiver, I am new to this hobby, but I want to buy a moderately priced radio, I heard some good news about ic 7300. I want to connect to a base station, any suggestions are greatly appreciated. 73 Tom

Yes, the 7300 is a good choice.

I inherited 7300 from my recently deceased brother a huge improvement to my limited ham hut W6EOH

Yaesu ft-817/818, I use 817, it is a very good radio.

interesting. I currently have an FT70 handheld device and I am looking for a 50 W device. I'm looking for something that is generally more user-friendly, a larger display, easier navigation settings and storage of your frequency, etc. Ideally, given my age, I would like something similar to a Collins or Drake rig in the 70s, with meters and Diles but I know this will not happen! Suggestions are also appreciated. The best advice I got so far is YaesuFT 400.

Cb radio is dead... I like it 40 years ago. Started learning ham license... brought a ham unit... opened it... everything was fine... no one was there... what's the point... like they are in most churches Most things said are the same. If you don't make way for young people, it will die...and it's happening...what to test...find out the wavelength...about power. All of this is to speak on the radio... that's it. For me, you have to join a ham group...show that up to 10 classes know how to communicate correctly, nothing more...

The computer club and the early computer experimenters were both hams. Older people can also be hackers. For example, it is tricky to make HF amplifiers using power transistors or portable trap dipoles.

The pros and cons of having 5G in the allocated frequency, and whether there are other options, everyone should listen to you.

You are very accurate. Since the invention of the “auto-repair” of the Ham Radio, it was originally intended to couple the telephone system with the Ham Storm Observer... and to provide information and whereabouts of the safest shelter in all mandatory evacuation plans broadcast...

Is it ARRL or AARP? I forgot now.

I have been trying to build my own SDR-based transmitter and it has proved to be very interesting. I can speak simplex, but I can't access my local repeater, I don't know why. I think that as the radio becomes more integrated, information about the absolute level of things (such as how high the CTSSS and audio levels should be) will be lost.

Otherwise, I just miss the process from hacking/theory to correct operation.

In the theoretical part of this wiki article, it describes the level of deviation measurement as a carrier.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_System

Of course, emergency communications can be traced back a long time ago. Amateur radio helps define the purpose of radio because it is very open. If I remember, the radio was there when the flood happened, I think it was in the 1930s. It's still early enough and there are not many radios in use. Then "emergency preparedness" becomes a lever. When asked "What are the benefits of amateur radio?", there is one more thing to list. So people have been urgently attracted for a long time.

But the change is not sudden. Once again, this shift seems to be what outsiders want, but they don't want "those technical things." "All we want is to speak on the radio." Ironically, when mobile phones appeared, this happened to the masses. So the test is simplified, and the final code requirement drops. It is not a burden for any 12-year-old child, but it is a burden for those who follow.

This shifted things from a technical point of view. All these kids are looking for receivers and building simple transmitters, even if they later use commercial equipment, they have that entrance. The magazine did not shy away from technical content, QST's articles on parametric amplifiers, and the noise reception when they were new to this hobby. You can't avoid it.

But simpler entry requires the transfer of hobbies to older, non-technical ones. Canada was reorganized in 1990. This is not big news, and even this hobby seems to have disappeared from public view. Maybe there is no connection, but if you need to simplify the input to keep the numbers, why is it not a selling point?

Simplified licensing means switching to 2M FM as an entry point. Once you are limited to this, what else is there besides emergency preparedness? Once you lose it as a technical hobby, you need emergency preparedness to justify its existence. Quantity replaces quality.

Decades later, the leadership strengthened this. Instead of being tempted by technology or at least tolerating technology as a teenager, he came in as an adult who just wanted to talk. Fifty years ago, things changed, but this hobby is still rooted in the past. Now that used to be a lot less.

So no one is fighting for the technical point of view. QST is dropping more and more technical articles. There was even an editorial last year that said it needed to be simplified to attract members, but forgot that doing so was selling their hobbies.

Amateur radio needs to go back in time. "Make" has a ham columnist, but it is about building qntennas and using scanners. She never knew when amateur radio appeared in amateur magazines, as guide articles and other things.

Interesting technical articles are on QEX. That would cost an extra 40 dollars. With ARRL membership every year, you will get QST magazine, without membership you will not be able to get QEX. I don't want QST. Half of the magazines are about competitions, and I don't care about competitions at all. People don't speak, they just spend 10 seconds in contact, and then move on to the next one. boring. This is why I am no longer a member of ARRL. The nearest amateur radio club is 50 miles away from me. I didn't bother to join, because these are 6 geezers talking about the game and they are not interested in new members. I am suitable for this age group, but my main focus is to build things. ARRL does not seem to support this.

At some point they changed the rules and you don't need to be a member to subscribe to QEX. Instead of premium. I noticed suddenly last year and there is no problem with the subscription. But a thin quarter does not bring much benefit.

For ARRL members, they now let them read the digital version of QEX for free.

But no, it's not like it used to be.

thanks. Maybe I will give them another try. I have seen ARRL for several years. In my opinion, half of this magazine is about disputes and complaints about homeowners' associations, and the other half is advertisements for multi-kibar radios. Of course, the world is changing, and you have to go with the flow to some extent. I still build from scratch. I start with the tube. My first test equipment is VTVM. There are still many hams with rich design and manufacturing expertise. For those who are not interested in the $9 Asian 2-meter handheld device, this is not completely balanced, but it is much better than spending time playing games.

I got a paper copy of QST and digital access to On The Air, QEX and competing magazines (yes, there are many ads). I think this started last summer. When I was looking for a new project, it was really helpful to access the digitized questions.

I really don't have much opinion about the good old days, because I only got a 2.5-year license. But what I can say is that as a tech-savvy person in his 30s, I am very happy to take out the soldering iron and try to add an arduino or raspberry pi to my workstation. In my ARES group, I seem to be a good source of information for setting up radio stations for digital mode. So I did bring it to my team (their average age is between 70 and 80), because I am not afraid to dive into hacker thinking and solve problems this way.

When they went to the "newsprint" newspaper, I gave up QEX. I didn’t get the next two issues, only the first half of the next three issues

Thank you, I don't know that Digital QEX is free for members.

QEX is now a free member.

Sadly, your apparent dislike of ARRL led to this article, which is full of misinformation about the availability of QEX to members and distortions of QST content. The competition information is extremely limited, and articles about ham, new and old equipment, construction projects, etc. abound. Maybe you are confused: CQ Magazine has a lot of competition information.

I agree, it’s more about the lack of engaging dialogue, rather than which corner of amateur radio someone prefers. I obtained a license near Silicon Valley and joined two broadcasting clubs related to engineering-focused academic institutions, joined MakerSpace and HackerSpace, and obtained licensed members and equipment on site. I now live in multiple active clubs. Rural areas. It is difficult to find a frequency for good conversation, and it takes a lot of effort to find a popular ham.

Emergency communication is an important part of a hobby. The attitude of local practitioners can distinguish a closed group of ideological preparers from a diverse community-oriented network of volunteers dedicated to disaster response (I was in Florida Hurricane Response and California Earthquake Preparedness too poor).

To find out which parts of amateur radio might add another layer to your project, study for the $15 exam and play with the $35 crappy radio, which is totally worth the admission.

Carlos Torres. KP4HU Thumbs up, I made the antenna and power supply like I did when I was a general. Everything has changed. QSO is not what it used to be. I remember that the round table we used to help each other was amateur radio.

One year, I chose to subscribe with QEX instead of QST. I want to know if you can still do this. The reason I did this is the same as you quoted

The mobile phone is just a "radio call" in a pedantic technical sense. It's not really the same experience, and it won't really fill the same volume at all.

Think about it, when you transmit on amateur radio, you don't know who will answer. You don't know who might be listening. Unless you make a schedule in advance, it's really just looking for dialogue. You don't know who it will be with or what will happen. If you do make a schedule in advance, it is easy to hold a round table with any number of people.

Therefore, amateur radio is a great way to talk to strangers or gather a group of friends.

Mobile phones, like landlines, are more targeted. You must know in advance who you want to talk to, and then call their specific number. When you do, their phone may ring, whether this is a good time, so you may not do this often without a specific reason.

Therefore, mobile phones are very suitable for very deliberate communication with specific people at specific times.

There is a reason why people no longer do this. Whenever you have a channel where random people can join, it will be full of crazy people who are kicked out of any other place because they hate it.

The more esoteric the subject becomes, the greater the possibility of madness. For example, things like edge interest image boards are almost always plagued by autistic patients who prevent any meaningful manipulations.

For the same reason, AM radio is full of conspiracy theorists and religious fanatics. In fact, you have "entry requirements" and need to devote yourself to the subject. This fact will have the opposite effect: it will attract compulsive individuals who have nothing to do and force them to show it to the world in any way Their brains.

Many people join the network and ad hoc conversations. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder will be ignored, and the net will move to avoid bastards.

Because of this mentality, and many other hobbies like you, this hobby will die sooner or later. This is why I refused to renew the license more than 20 years ago. Unfortunately, CB radio communication is much better than anything Ham provides. Soon the FCC will sell all 2m and 70cm frequencies, and soon you will see everyone fall off. It's so sad that people like you think this hobby makes you believe that you are a member of the elite society! ! !

But do people still do this all the time? You just have to tolerate madness (it's not difficult), it's actually fun.

Yes, but after a period of time it will get old, and then you will give up, as will everyone else, except those lunatics and conspiracy theorists who keep yelling at each other.

The "keep going" advice above did not work in the end, because every place is developing in the same way. First, you tolerate a little gibberish, then you ignore it, and soon no one is sensible enough to talk.

In fact, people have been doing this all the time. I have Hamming for more than 25 years. There is a repeater, and occasionally I lose my phone at 20 or 40 meters. I don't remember ever meeting one of these "mad men" you referred to.

Part of the problem is the antenna limitation, but I have never found a solution. From the wire antenna in the attic to the wire antenna hidden in the tree, I have no excuses. I don't need a 200-foot tower to talk to Europe from Missouri.

Then we saw the death of Radio Shack. Unless you live in a big city with good electronic parts stores, you must order soldering irons, resistors, PCBs, etc. online. Thank god the internet.

It depends on what you do. If you really want to communicate with people, there is nothing to talk about, just endless adjustments and tests of different radio equipment.

As they say, if you can't find anything, then...

Internet radio on your phone meets the needs you describe

Yes, but I think this is usually not what people mean. Most of the time, I have encountered people talking about "just calling someone" on the phone, but told me they just don't understand.

There are still some small disputes between friends who meet on a local repeater and a group of friends who meet on an Internet chat room. If your goal is to see which of your friends can perform IRL, then you will not be able to contact friends who are currently outside the scope of the repeater (and therefore may also be outside the scope of the meeting). I must admit that this is a small matter.

Although smartphones that can do this have been out for a while before this year, I really don't know anyone who uses them in this way. Of course, they use the Internet to communicate via smartphones, but mainly one-way social media "look at me" posts or one-on-one messaging. The idea of ​​letting a group of real-world friends join some common Internet chat rooms, like what Ham did on repeaters or what CBers did in the 1970s, is not the same thing, at least when I have any This is true in any social circle you contact.

In 2020...well, I have a group of friends using the Houseparty app in this way. Maybe this will continue to be a thing after Covid? I have no idea.

In the final analysis, what I really value about amateur radio is that it is open to DIY, as long as the radio wave is not completely taken over by the proprietary voice codec, it will remain so.

Cellular service is as open to DIY as hardened cement is to swimming.

Yes, there are group texting, but if you select all your friends at a random time and throw them into a group texting just to say "what's wrong", you are likely to lose some friends! Another benefit of a repeater (or chat room) is that anyone who does not want to be available now will not turn on the radio or enter the room. It is not expected that 24×7 will be available, nor will it fill up the mailbox.

> It's just nothing, at least in any social circle with which I have any connection

We used to have an IRC channel for this. You can log in whenever you are in the city. It disappeared after the screen server became too inconvenient to run all the time, but then mobile platforms like whatsapp and even Teams appeared, and now it is actually the same thing, just better.

NT8G. In 1959, I became a novice at the age of 13, because it was a challenge that allowed me to start broadcasting. I dragged many TVs from the garbage dump on the side of the road to recycle parts to make my own equipment. Novices can only use CW. This is what I did after studying with my friend K8AVD, if he is still alive. We built a 9-volt QRP transmitter and tested it. We tried various antennas. My first 6 mtr rig was a self-made "SIXER", made according to a commercial kit without a kit. Homebrew recvr, DX20 XMTR. But after learning the theory, I always don't have the money to buy equipment. My spare time prepares me to tour the Navy as a radio operator, where we still use CW. The broadcasting school is a small place where I teach CW. I hardly have any fancy drilling rigs, and I still use the TEMPO 2020 from 1975. It's exciting to get in touch with your own made equipment.

Now I look at amateur radio operators and find that they don’t have to learn too much. CW came out. Traffic handling has been reduced a lot. Everyone wants a $2,500 radio and buys an antenna. No wonder people no longer pay attention to amateur radio. It’s still great to chat through your radio. Well, you may not have all the bells and whistles, but you built it. Building a model railway is very interesting, but I don’t think much about running it, just build it. The same is true with the radio. If you just want to chat with your friends, the radio is fun. I can't stand Facebook, but many people spend hours discussing it.

I like everything. You got what you put in. You buy equipment instead of modifying, reusing or building. You only have money and you may get very little. If you are interested in this technology and interested in how everything works or accomplish something, then it becomes interesting. The reason we are so interested in emergency work is that it provides goals and objectives for our hobbies. For example, when a hurricane in Louisiana destroys the communications network, we do strengthen and provide communications. Don't think so, I have been there and did it. If someone develops an EMP bomb, it will be amateur radio.

So, experiment. Develop new technologies. All the radio, television, and electronic wonders we enjoy today were developed by someone. Probably the HAM radio operator. He may have been working on a commercial project, but his interest in pushing the limits is the same as that of ham for many years. Yes, I am still more comfortable with the rosy glow of the tube and the finals. Yes, I am still happy to tune in the entire spectrum and hear all the strange sounds. As a boy, my dad listened to the game on a full-band radio, and it was exciting to hear those beeps and whistles...and it still is. More than 60 years later.

"It's still great to chat through the radio you made. Well, you may not have all the bells and whistles, but you built it."

What bells and whistles? It depends on what you mean by constructing it.

It is difficult to find the parts you need in modern TVs, but all the parts you used to buy are on Ebay. Although the transformer is a bit expensive, people can make the same radio today.

There are many transistor-based radio designs on the Internet, with varying levels of complexity, and they "start from the ground up" just like old devices. Or you can go further. I even saw a lot of information on the Internet about how to build variable capacitors from copper flashes in hardware stores. How about DIY VFO?

In these levels of DIY, I expect some bells and whistles will be missing.

But there are also DDS chips, Arduinos and touch screens. Add some digital potentiometers to control things like gain, volume, and squelch. I don't know what bells and whistles are out of reach, at least compared to radios under $1,000.

Then there are the super scammers who priced like rigs built by car commerce. All I saw was an SDR, a power amplifier, an embedded computer, and a custom UI with a lot of physical buttons, rotary encoders, LEDs, and other displays. I can't imagine what they offer, so that a person with basic SDR, power amplifier and knowledge of Python and Arduino can't do it themselves.

You are absolutely correct. 99% of new hams, even those with the highest level of license, know nothing about electronics.

The idiot of the Federal Communications Commission approved a volunteer testing program with actual test questions and answers! t

The applicant just memorized it by rote and did not understand any answers. . I have obtained a license for 60 years. ARRL and FCC ruined a great hobby.

Just "...lack of electronic knowledge...". Looking back at my lab notes, I noticed that I said to myself "85% don't know...", there are still a large number of licensed "18 Wheeler's"...

With a US technology license, you can get microwave frequencies. This is all hacking. Far more than 2M. In addition, you can also get CW in some HF bands. CW transceiver is a classic circuit, you can learn a lot from studying.

I agree that even as a ho code ham, the technical license is already a low barrier to entry.

A-men when there is input right. Even if people "like me" almost never use it, I voted for the code as a requirement. Just my opinion. K5RKO 73

You know I have used amateur radio for 42 years and keep up with all the changes. There is nothing more difficult than crystal radio, valve radio to SDR radio. I recommend yaesu because this is the only device used by all hams, such as ft991 or x-band Repeater ftm350, if you know your preference, go for it.

One of the reasons for amateur radio diyng is national regulations and permits. For example, now, when almost all civilian and military AM frequency bands are empty, building a global amateur digital network may be a paradise, but the government does not want to leave these frequency bands to amateurs, and it is still digital (especially encrypted) It can be transmitted even in the old ham band.

Absolutely. You must constantly identify yourself and not allow the transmission of music, "bad" words or encrypted data, which makes amateur radio absolutely unattractive. Cancel regulations, it may be more interesting than the Internet. For now, it is essentially *design* becoming an elderly hobby, so it's no surprise that the community is mainly boring elderly people.

How does playing music make this hobby more technical? It will only bring people who buy off-the-shelf equipment and then play DJs. Amateur radio does not broadcast.

Amateur radio is an end in itself. This is about building radios and playing them in the air. It cannot be about business, and if this happens, business will take advantage of easy access.

Do we need a better network? Fifty years ago, there was a technological tendency to build repeaters in depth to make portable rigs a useful infrastructure. But for many hams, repeaters are using them. Amateur packet radio came out in 1978, at least in Canada, and the rules changed almost immediately to accept digitization. But also most of them are users, and few get free digital licenses ("too difficult"). The data package is designed to utilize the existing FM radio, which severely limits the speed. Increasing speed means a lot of expensive equipment, so it never happened. Data package is a stage, once the freshness passes, it will disappear, because it is related to technology, not to use.

People come to tell us what needs to be changed, but that has already happened, easier to test and shift away from technology. The change is not to make hobbies easier to use, but to let people who are interested in technical issues enter hobbies.

There are other regulations for amateur band broadcasting.

It is ridiculous that music is completely banned. If there may be some background music infiltrated, you can't increase it. There is an exception that allows accompanying music-but only on the International Space Station? !

> It's about building radios and playing them in the air.

> Data package is a stage, once the freshness passes, it will disappear, because it is about technology, not use.

> Change is not to make hobbies easier to use, but to let people who are interested in technical issues enter hobbies.

They seem to contradict each other.

Digital transmission is entirely a technical issue. Now we have a lot of new things to play with. We have absolutely empty long wave and medium wave AM bands. The width of the medium wave is 1MHz. You will have a lot of fun by creating a simple DPSS transceiver with 1Mchips in the dead zone. You can try different modulations and encodings in the long wave band to get a reasonable data speed. But you can't. Banned for no reason.

Amateur radio is the least restrictive radio service. People don't see this, they see that they can't do what they personally want to do, they think it's "too many rules".

There have been innovations for decades, but what if technological advantages provide people with a basis for basic radio knowledge? Building any transmitter will provide some knowledge that most people don't have.

But every time this hobby is mentioned here, people hope it is something else. They want digital networks, but this is not experimenting or learning, but doing everything they do on the Internet. There is a lot of room for experimentation. If there are no regulations, you can try to obtain special authorization at any time. But what do you plan to use a high-bandwidth network for? There are restrictions because it is not for commercial use. It sounds like you don't want to try new things, just use something else on the ham band (or even a band that is not a ham band). Once you start talking about the web, then you lose diversity because people who use other modes will get in the way. Like I said, infrastructure means relatively few buildings so that other people can talk.

> But every time this hobby is mentioned here, people hope it is something else.

This is a very simple matter.

The main ham magic is to talk to random strangers thousands of miles away through noise and distance, these strangers may come from another country. And that QSL exchange! There is no magic anymore. Talking with strangers thousands of miles away is the norm of daily boring. I am doing it now.

So, there must be some place where you can find magic again. For example, sending some data to random strangers thousands of miles away without any obstacles, such as authority, providers, services, rules, censorship, DMCA, etc. Direct and point-to-point. This is really amazing today.

> There are restrictions because it is not applicable to business.

You cannot make a profit by sending data at an interesting 100kbps. There can be no business, because you don't know who will receive your data. Nothing else but to feel that magical power again.

> Once you start talking about the Internet, you lose diversity because people who use other modes will get in the way.

Is it different from a typical ham conversation?

>You can't make a profit by sending data at an interesting 100kbps.

There are a lot of "interesting" IoT companies that are currently doing this, but they use the already crowded ISM frequency, where they can encrypt and send it securely.

I don't care about your "hobby" at all. If I have a radio, I want to have freedom of speech when I use it. This includes playing music, encrypting my communications, or anything else I want. If you want the government to continuously step in and tell people what they can and cannot say, it’s up to you, but I doubt that this will encourage people to be interested in using radio, especially the “hackers” mentioned in this article that circumvent the rules. The type is targeted. If the FCC keeps staring at them, how do you expect people to find novel and interesting things related to radio communications? Until this problem is resolved, amateur radio will continue to be a pastime for elderly patients.

If you want to play music continuously, it will block other people’s channels. There is no need for the government to tell you to stop doing this.

DMR is one of these new areas of amateur radio. It can bring some excitement... We see people have this attitude ("anonymity")... They do remain anonymous when they interfere with voice repeaters and spread obscene content. The interference has become so severe (due to one or two bad apples) that the local sponsor of the DMR repeater with excellent coverage just turns it off and packs it. I think if I can't have it, neither can you.

Do we really think there are "too many rules"? When I got permission, the rules were divided into four categories: 1) Know where and how to play 2) Don’t hurt yourself or others 3) Realize that as a shared media, you can’t monopolize it with respect to others’ use 4) Realize that instead of granting commercial benefits (paying MM), granting you free (such as $0) to use the spectrum, you cannot compete with these commercial benefits, including playing music, conducting profit-making activities, etc. This is just a concession that we have agreed to in order to obtain a free license.

If you don't like the meaning of #4, then there are some business options for you. They usually require a subscription from the commercial entity that obtains the spectrum license. For example, cellular or other wireless technologies. The world is your oyster, but a non-free oyster.

I agree with your analysis. People nowadays want to put everything on a silver plate.

Work hard for it! ! ! Kh6tb

There is nothing wrong with the rules and regulations of HAM radio. They teach you to use self-discipline. I think this person must be an ignorant person. His ideas are exactly the same as those of the hippies in the 1960s. They think they can live without a company. Their lifestyle is not long.

[This article was obviously entered via a Morse keyboard. No lowercase, no carriage return. ]

Saying that the rules "teach you self-discipline" is a huge response. By following the rules, you are actually being disciplined by others. This is the old legend of the fox and grapes: "I can't do it? I don't want to do that anyway." In addition, it is ironic to see that this comes from a person who has no self-discipline checking his caps lock key before posting.

In the early days of broadcasting, there were no licenses and no rules. That didn't last long. The equipment is simple and the spectrum is very small. When it is actually used severely, there will be interference problems, so the rules appear. Amateur radio has always been there, in fact since the early days.

It's ridiculous to see people complaining about too many rules. Among all radio services, amateur radio regulations are the least. You can build a transmitter and run up to one kilowatt (depending on your country/region). You can use multiple modes. There are ham bands from low frequency to microwave. You can operate anywhere on these bands (there are some restrictions based on your license category). You don't have to have a purpose. You can do endless things with your license, or invent new things. (Amateur radio proved the value of shortwave, amateur radio produced amateur radio, and so did the concept of radio stations. The first non-governmental satellite in orbit was an amateur satellite).

Don't complain about amateur radio, all other radio services are more restricted. Well, you can always pirate, but this has the problem of being caught.

But this does not mean to become other radio services.

Obviously it is not for you.

"There is an interference problem, so the rules are here"

This is illogical. Interference will not create rules, an overly intrusive government will create rules. This is by no means necessary or inevitable, and we can easily go back to the days before permission (we should do this).

We should not complain about unnecessary restrictions, because the idea that other types of radios have *more* restrictions is just cowardly. There shouldn't be any at all. Radio licensing and regulation originated from a mechanism to stifle freedom of speech, and it is still the case today.

As the Internet becomes increasingly censored by large technology companies and bank cartels, people need to start opposing regulations that prevent people from creating their own alternatives.

>Interference does not create rules

Yes, it does. No matter what you do, the spectrum will be divided in a certain way, otherwise people will not be able to do anything with radio. Doing it through elbow tactics (without central authority) is a way to determine who can use what and where, but this is not what you really want to do, it takes a long time to settle down (if any) And it’s the least conductive way for public hobbies like amateur radio. Most participants don’t have the resources to make room for their elbows.

For example, early radio stations usually adopted a strategy that they would transmit on the same frequency as another distant station, but at a different time. Then they started to gradually change the time to overlap, so they would try to squeeze each other and then fight in court. As early as 1926, a judge actually overturned the previous 1912 law and temporarily released the spectrum. This meant that radio stations could transmit whatever they wanted without a license, which resulted in absolute confusion. This is the reason FRC was established in 1927 to re-queue rogue stations.

>By following the rules, you are actually being disciplined by others.

This is a strange way of thinking. The only freedom is not to follow the rules? But this is only bound by the negation of the rules, and it still follows the rules.

In any particular situation, you are always free to do whatever you choose to do. In fact, you have no choice other than free choice. The only difference is how you defend yourself. Therefore, the difference between self-discipline and obedience is only whether you choose to follow the rule because it is wise, or because you transfer the responsibility of your choice to someone else.

You can transmit music on shortwave, no problem. You only need to obtain a broadcasting license, and you can also get a dedicated frequency. This is a different service. Amateur radio is a shared communication service, not broadcast. You never lived until your contact with leaving the continent was blown into oblivion, because some lids played muleskinner blues on a unilateral belt. By the way, if you really want to broadcast music, let me introduce you to my friends, ASCAP, SESAC and BMI. They will want to know where to send the bill. bad language? bring it on. No one wants to hear those things. The children are also ham. If we want to expand our hobbies, we should keep this in mind.

Can you think about anything without referring to the rules and regulations? What makes a person like this? Before you (obviously) retired, were you a lawyer or something? Why do you think copyright law is a good thing, and why do you think people should respect it? This is so strange.

No one cares about obscenity; it is 2020, and we have left all those weird outdated language rules in the 20th century. Children may know more """bad" and "" words than you. Closer to home, when you grow up, don't make excuses to report people and have fun.

Everyone has a different view on the concept of amateur radio. If we have no rules, then we will only give the choice to people like you. Then there are your rules, the orders of anarchy, which serve some people better than others.

You will not avoid the responsibility of choice by saying "Let everyone choose for themselves", because you know exactly how this will end. In the final analysis, it's just a process of formulating rules in different ways.

Internet is equipment operation As ee and software engineer, I do know what happens when you type on the keyboard and then press Enter. Unfortunately, many people do not know what happens when signals are sent and received via wireless and wired media. You can access all the content after you purchase a personal computer or laptop.

I work on projects from time to time to learn new things. The work of amateur radio, EE and software engineer prepares me to work in the industry. Over the years, having this background has helped me find a job. I also continue to try amateur radio to maintain and improve my skill level.

It is illegal worldwide to transmit music over the air or even play music in public without the permission of the copyright owner or without paying royalties. In some places, due to copyright infringement, you cannot even use those low-power FM transmitters to connect your smartphone/MP3 player ("Members, when are these?") to your FM radio. Music piracy will not be allowed by the ham band. Besides, it will not make amateur radio attractive to anyone...

As for encryption, there is a problem of illegal use. Criminals previously used ham, CB and PMR for criminal purposes. Do you really want to turn ham into another Tor network for drug dealers, illegal arms dealers, human traffickers, etc.? Do you want your ham band to be full of highly encrypted child pornography?

You forgot that there is music that is not protected by copyright or has a license that allows free sharing. People can also make their own music.

If they really want to increase music sales, they should enact a law stating that stealing devices (smartphones, laptops, cars, etc.) containing legally obtained music (or other copyrighted content) will make the thief guilty of copyright infringement And theft. If music can also play a role in preventing theft, then many people will buy music.

Yes, obviously only criminals use encryption. Like after the http protocol. In the website you are currently browsing.

All in all, according to the logic that the only purpose of encryption is illegal activities, you are obviously using criminal encryption?

HTTPS encryption protects the client from man-in-the-middle attacks, fake sites that try to obtain login/password combinations, etc. Since when did radio enthusiasts need to encrypt their QSL calls? If you want an ebcrypted long-distance communication, then use a VoIP system, cell phone or satellite phone...

What if two people want to communicate directly and privately without any infrastructure? Do they have a choice? If not, why not open amateur radio to this kind of activity?

No one prevents you from talking to someone on amateur radio. If you want a private or encrypted conversation, there are other places, such as the Internet, telephone systems, satellite phones, letters (private and protected by law in all free countries), and even carrier pigeons carrying encrypted microSD cards.

In a country where human rights are only wishful thinking of naive people, Tor should be a free speech channel for people under state surveillance. Most of them are used by criminals, drug dealers, pedophiles, etc. Tor effectively protects their rights to freedom of speech, business freedom and general freedom. Great, right?

In addition, my comment on your Foldi-Ones review also appears at the bottom of the comment section...

You did not read my post. All the alternatives you offer (not including pigeons of course) require infrastructure.

Yes, freedom *is* great. I don't care if it is used by bad guys. The problem with Tor is that I need to route traffic for these people, which is something I don't want to do. Unrestricted broadcasting is peer-to-peer, so there won't be this problem.

Please note that if encrypted amateur radio conversations do become an issue for your freedom of speech, then there is actually no law that prevents you from doing so. If the situation requires it, you have every reason to engage in civil disobedience, and the problem becomes a problem of not being caught.

In this case, even if you do have some kind of "encryption right", it will not be respected, just as the police respect your right to peaceful assembly, they will only give you poison gas and drag you into jail.

So the whole point of having no rules is because you may need to break the rules in the future. As long as there are rules, then break the rules when necessary. After all, rules cannot justify yourself, so you are ultimately not bound by any rules.

Imagine defending copyright laws on websites for hackers. Why are you here? In addition, do you really claim that independent music will not be popular? Think about it.

To be honest, I don’t care what people use the radio for. Freedom of speech is more valuable than stopping crime. If I can help, I would rather everyone on the planet not listen to my private conversations.

But you will care if someone is broadcasting and preventing you from using frequency bands that should not be used for continuous transmission. Although some rules are obviously stupid and do not allow music to be played on ordinary HAM bands, the license makes sense-the use space of HAMS is limited. Anyone who wants to use HAM bands does not want to listen to other people's music. They want Communicate rather than just listen.

Personally, I do care about music piracy-the artist(s) may not get as much as they deserve, but they have created something, and they may work on it for years to really pin the album and it’s worth it. This pays the price.

Why not let the radio evolve naturally? If the government does not step in and shut down everything, people will eventually figure out how to deal with interference.

In addition, intellectual property rights are not real.

The way people tend to deal with interference is to either leave completely or increase their transmit power. In other words, they don't deal with it, they just yell at each other, because in the end this is what you can do without common authority. It eventually shifted to elbow tactics.

The problem with intellectual property is that it conducts business in the wrong way: first eradicate the product, and then expect to be paid. It's like asking a beggar to clean your windows at a traffic light; you are required to pay for various permits and licenses for things you don't even require. In fact, these are not really attributed to the artist, this is only a small part of the problem.

Copyright and royalties are not necessary, and they are usually not even conducive to artists getting paid. They are essential for publishers and media companies to get in the middle.

Three is already a CB band. We don’t need five anymore.

wait! What? Can't say "bad things" on the radio to make amateur radio absolutely unattractive? ? OK? ?

> You must constantly identify yourself and not allow the transmission of music, "bad" words or encrypted data, which makes amateur radio absolutely unattractive.

Oops. So the amateur radio regulations prohibit trolling, abuse, unregulated users, and commercial/criminal use...I am sad.

You can do digital network work well on existing amateur bands. Packet radio (AX.25) was the main mode at the time, and it worked well on VHF connections. On shortwave, the speed drops sharply, so most people work on VHF and route their connections through multiple nodes. But since the Internet began to work well, the old packet broadcast BBS has disappeared. I want to revive the idea of ​​regional and national network connections based on amateur radio in a more modern model, but few people also want such a thing.

Don't overestimate the usefulness of the MW broadcast band to amateurs. We have allocated about 475khz and 1850khz, these frequency bands still provide enough space for experiments, because not many people can handle the antenna size required for transmission on these frequency bands.

For those who want to transfer music, more and more countries are opening up. The United States has a part 15 law of 300mW, and the Netherlands provides a 1w license for about 300 euros per year and a 100w license for about 500 euros per year. In the Netherlands, there have never been more AM broadcasting companies. There are now about 40 legal music stations on the frequencies allocated to the Netherlands. If we have more allocations, there will undoubtedly be more, but the fact is that the mid-band is still very full. Check it out on this webSDR at 00:00 UTC time: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/-it is absolutely packed. If you want to use shortwave broadcasting, you can rent several professional European transmitters per hour, ranging from the 15 Euro per hour transmitter covering parts of Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the former German National Shortwave Broadcasting Corporation, which runs approximately every hour. 150 euros, but provides true global coverage.

In any case, regulation is not a problem. At least in the Netherlands, there are many options to do your own thing, and there is plenty of room outside of game time. You don’t want more space than you need, because it’s almost impossible to find another person to talk to. It's hard to bump into a person at will.

Many amateur radio operators have become equipment users. Although this is interesting, I think the "ham" part is left behind. But everyone has their own interests. My interest is to combine old equipment with new technology and give them new life. Currently, I am working on some old crystal locking devices, using Arduinos (and ESP32 board) to drive Si5351 VFO for multi-channel tuning. So far, these include FT75B HF, Trio VHF, a pair of FM828 sets, Philips FM1680, Hawk HF and some Codans. The latest one is to use the wonderful VFO of JF3HZB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkfQFdTcnG8 and adapt it to various radios. One of the best codes I have ever seen. Thanks! ! ! I have modified many transceivers with Arduino Nano-based versions. The first one is to "rescue" the old Hawk HF radio that cost me $30. This is my daily setup now. http://www.sadarc.org/xenforo/upload/index.php?threads/pcm-hawk-arduino-vfo.36/ More including... http://www.sadarc.org/xenforo/upload/ index.php ?threads/basic-arduino-vfo-for-crystal-replacement.25/ http://www.sadarc.org/xenforo/upload/index.php?threads/codan-8525b-arduino-si5351-vfo. 24/ But the above tJF3HZB very good adaptive VFO looks great. I do hope to make a complete HF transceiver, but it may take a while. There are also some old CBs in the pipeline. Don't just throw these old things into the trash can, but let them run and pass them to the new ham. There are now a few hams using the settings I gave them, and some build VFO versions here to make their old settings work.

Look at what the RSGB in the UK has done. The online exam starts from the basics, then the intermediate level, and finally the complete/advanced level. This eliminates the difficulty of arranging assessments for the club and the difficulty of attending the test center. This has led to an influx of new licensed amateurs. This is facilitated by the enthusiastic participation of all amateurs who have given up time for online proctoring to ensure that they understand the entire process and watch candidates online during the exam. The Foundation license allows access to most HF and above frequency bands, limited to 10W. I have passed the basic and intermediate, comprehensive exams in January. This means that I can now use the electronic hobby knowledge I used to design/build receivers to build transmitters. I also learned more from reading the exam syllabus. This is the perfect situation for people who just want to communicate with hobbyists who use commercial equipment worth £££ or hackers who want to use pennies for QRP. I plan to do both.

Things should be like this. Bring more people into hobbies to enjoy yourself. In New Zealand, we still have outdated requirements that may work when everyone *needs* to build their radio, because there is no ready-made one available, but they are just stopping people today. I think on the positive side, there is only one license, but on the downside, if you are not an electronics expert, you will not get a license.

certainly. Let's sharpen this old saw.

Emergency preparedness? Please. My family survived 3 catastrophic wildfires (severe bad luck) through the method of "neighbors knocking on the door", and mobile phones can also be used. Local media and California forestry websites are not enough, but in this era of solid local emergency preparedness, everyone is still breathing.

Although every ham wants to believe that they can save the day through a timely phone call, no one is listening. nobody. If you think HT will save you or notify others, you are wrong. sorry. My parents and in-laws are still alive, because good neighbors and professional emergency rescuers are practicing and are...professionals.

This is a hobby. I was fencing in college-swordsmanship is not a thing in 2020. But it is interesting. I fly a glider (unpowered airplane) just for fun. Not practical. I bought, processed and refitted the Mustang in 1966. According to every objective criterion, the Ford Taurus can beat it. Does it matter? Do not.

Can we be honest with ourselves and admit that amateur radio is a fun hobby with no practical use? The personal thrill of discovery and experimentation will not change the world. Whatever you want amateur radio to do for you, that's it. For me, satellite communication is exciting. Is it "important" or "unique"? Do not. Many, many people have been doing this. But will this reduce the fun? Do not! Very interesting for me!

I think it's important to argue with the local or federal government about the right to our hobby, but don't let it be. It is not important to the infrastructure. It is not important for emergency communications. It is not "critical" to anything. But it is fun and important for the right to experiment, build equipment, and share happiness with others. This is a hobby. It is harmless, interesting and important to the individual.

-(Licensed ham.. years).

However, wildfires are just a natural disaster, and I'm not sure if they are the type of communication infrastructure that is easy to damage. Sidebar: I’m actually interested in learning more about how the Peak Radio and Microwave sites perform in this situation

Another point about the function of ham radio Emcomm is that it may not be a real ham radio infrastructure, but a team of well-trained communicator volunteers. I think this is indeed a resource provided by ham radio in the disaster, and the fact that they communicate on ham radio repeaters may be secondary. Allowing these communicators to own their own infrastructure is a convenient facility that facilitates recruitment.

Another thing I want to say about amateur radio is that sometimes it supports other hobbies! We participate in rally races, these races need to close public roads, which means that they are held in semi-remote places, and there is usually no reliable mobile phone service. Rallying absolutely relies on amateur radio conducted in a safe manner, which is a win-win relationship because amateurs can practice their communication skills in a fun-filled environment.

This actually raises another point. I think if disasters like tornadoes happen in rural areas, those people might rely on amateur radio repeaters like a rally. Of course, the local municipality has its own radio system, but I guess amateur radio infrastructure is a welcome addition when there is no cellular service. And the infrastructure is provided by volunteers, "for free" (if you don't calculate the radio spectrum allocation, this is actually not what the cellular operator wants due to its lower frequency and ol' Nyquist restrictions).

So yes, I think amateur radio can still stand up as an emergency service. But this is also a good hobby!

Tornadoes are very localized events. They rarely purchase power infrastructure for multiple customers. Their chances of accessing the relay site are very slim and not worth considering. We have encountered more problems with communication and power interruptions caused by ice storms, but this happens only once every few years. So far, I have not activated ham. I once provided parking assistance at an air show. Ham Emcomm is a joke. Let go of the professionals.

Although not common, I can attest to a situation in Kansas where the local ARES amateur radio team was critical to saving lives after the storm prevented emergency personnel from using P25 radios and caused large blind areas in cell coverage. The EMComm aspect of ham radio is very similar to the spare tire and jack of your car. You may never need it, but do you want to take it out to save space?

Starting with VA3ROD... it's there! well said. Best 73

The world we live in is huge. I cannot represent every county and state, but I can represent Liberty County in Florida. When Hurricane Michael swept through and destroyed mobile services, the Internet, landlines, and public safety communications, an enterprising emergency manager dug up an old amateur radio and connected it to an antenna that had survived the storm, and finally Found a working repeater. They used the system for 3 days to transport resources and basic necessities into their county until part of the "professional" system was partially restored. Amateur radio has a place in the disaster, and it will always be.

You are on the frequency. The amateur radio described in these reviews is a diverse and technically complex "hobby" whose practitioners have also participated in or initiated major scientific advances in the past 125 years and have saved countless lives. There are many kinds of comments on the structure and function of amateur radio in this forum, telling you the importance and importance of amateur radio to a free society. Yes, there are idiots (hams over 60 years old) and beginners like me who started this hobby as a child. Of course, some people are addicted to competitions, simple and complex technical projects, communication theories, HOA stupidity, emergency communications. and many more. This is the glory and status of amateur radio in a free society. Hate, diversity, fun, and sense of mission are a great thing—not our enemy, but our holy grail.

Ned Rubin in the 73s. W4NED

I regard all these urgent communication things as a kind of politics, making a hobby more acceptable to the general public. I have been an amateur radio operator for more than 35 years and only use a license to contact other hams occasionally. It has never been used for any emergency calls. My license is mainly used for scientific research. You have a large frequency range and can generate high power if needed, and at almost no cost. The few rules we have are necessary to make everyone happy, it shares frequency space. Fortunately, most of the non-technical box buyers and small packers have moved to the Internet.

This is "an excuse for organized militia." In other words, if you are all organized and well-trained for this purpose, then in an emergency, if you are asked, you can, but you are not, you will not, and they will not ask you, because there is already Other ways to deal with this problem.

Yes. well said. I don't know why HaD and others feel it is necessary to continue stabbing bears on this issue. There are "those" ham guys who are white knights of their own empire. Hams like you and me just smile and nod when talking, and then we walk away and do the hobby we want to do.

Ham is a purposeful hobby. A few months ago, I conducted monitoring on the 20-meter frequency, which is usually reserved for maritime users. A specific user on the sailboat lost the engine in the absence of wind. He is drifting to a shallow reef area. Except for his amateur radio, he could not reach anyone. The Coast Guard was dispatched, and he couldn't help. He had entered shallow water, but stayed nearby to avoid being hit. He has been in touch with Lu Zhan Station, which comforts him. A gust of wind hit him and he was able to escape smoothly. If there was a big ice storm in Memphis, Tennessee not long ago, this would happen. 90% of the electricity has been eliminated for 2 weeks or more. During this period, the radio operator can report to emergency responders until the power is restored. The ham experiment has brought many commercial products to the world. I am one of those old people who love a hobby and hope that we will not lose it. Peace and security

Much of the magic of amateur radio (for me anyway) is the novelty of talking to people from far away and hearing radio broadcasts from far away. It's really cool to listen to the BBC and hear the weather in London on a good night, or hear the news of Skyking, or anything else you can hear. All this is amazing, really, because I live in a relatively small town. Before the advent of mobile phones, 2M provided a way to communicate with my friends and a few family members. But learning how to build an antenna and match the transmission line and all the nuts and bolts is not particularly interesting to me. This is a means to an end. I prefer results to journeys.

Now of course, two-way live streaming of images and sounds from almost anywhere in the world is trivial, and a few minutes of voice conversation under different atmospheric conditions seems to be outdated. It is also weird to use local 2M repeaters in the mobile phone era.

For the above reasons, I think HAM radio will have a difficult time. When you take away novelty and "kick", why would someone take the time to learn everything you need to learn to get a ham ticket, and there are so many other things to learn there? If you are technically inclined to the entire ESP32/8266/IOT world. You have a truly fascinating TensorFlow/machine learning world. Laura Wan. Even 3d printing. All kinds of things are far more interesting than learning Morse code.

To provide another point of view, for me, amateur radio is about architecture and experimentation. I don’t care how many connections there are in the end. The journey is very important to me. This is contrary to your point of view, but it is also true, we are all human beings. Another hobby of mine is drag racing. I like driving. I like to beat the guys in the other lane, but for me, the ultimate reward is the manufacture, adjustment and wiring of cars. When you are so good at the former, the latter is a foregone conclusion. So I have always enjoyed this journey, and as a result, if you can do the job, that's a matter of course. Birds of a feather flock together.

This may seem selfish, but it is not. My website https://miscdotgeek.com/ is very concerned about this. There is no "preparer" content, I try to focus on self-made projects as much as possible-building QRP radio things, so that anyone with a soldering iron and amateur radio license can accept: or not. My first temporary build was the receiver, not the transmitter. I will talk about this soon.

The little income I earn from advertising will be reused to make more projects. I can use support, so if anyone wants to subscribe to it, I would appreciate it.

Thanks for your advice-it looks interesting, just subscribed.

Amateur radio is a hobby of many niche communities. Some people build large radio stations with larger antenna fields in order to get high scores in HF competitions, some people climb to the top with small Morse code transceivers on foot, and some people mainly work in multi-GHz frequency bands. Yes, some people just have a 2m HT hidden in a drawer.

Some people like to build and repair, others just want to use factory-made antennas to operate factory-made radios.

There are some grumpy people who talk contemptuously about those who enjoy hobbies that are not approved by the grumpy person. But in my experience, most hams respect most aspects of hobbies, even though they may lack the motivation or skills to explore all aspects.

Construction and experimentation are widely respected in the ham circle and are part of the hobby foundation. Hackers are definitely welcome in hobbies, although there are many hams that are not hackers. You may need to do some searching before you find someone who shares your hobbies, but keep looking.

I have taught the electronic theory part of several licensing courses. The first level exam did not go beyond Ohm's law, and there are schematic symbols for resistors, capacitors, and inductors, but some students wonder why they even need to learn these. I always remind them that their first ham license is all the government authorization required to disassemble the microwave oven and turn it into a transmitter that can transmit one kilowatt of radio frequency energy to the moon and return it, with another People on the mainland communicate.

Hackers, get your ham license, play games and share your work with others! Maybe not all hams will be appreciated, but many will.

In my opinion, two things need to be changed:

1) Encryption is allowed. Internet protocols are moving in the direction of mandatory encryption (such as HTTP2, QUIC, etc.) and perfect forward secrecy (so you can't share keys in advance). We have lost part of AMPRnet (44.0.0.0/8) because it has not been used. If we want to maintain compatibility with the Internet, we *must* allow encryption. Otherwise, the Internet will leave amateur radio behind.

2) It is allowed to use any fully documented modulation/protocol for identification. Part 97 is quite strict about your identification method, and it is outdated. For example, you can use NTSC for visual recognition, but not ATSC or DVB-T. What's even more ridiculous is that even if they use a patented audio codec for decoding, you can also transmit the ID through the phone, but you cannot embed the ID as ASCII data sent using international standards.

In my opinion, encryption is nonsense. Amateur radio must remain "open", otherwise we will no longer be allowed to self-manage, which in turn deprives us of all our freedom and abilities. We will lose the ability to use homemade transceivers, etc. or to conduct experiments. If we start using encryption, we will be threaded like spies. Or regarded as something equivalent to dark web users. Think of the Federation in the Star Trek universe. There, the Federation World will not use invisible starships to maintain peace. Its principle is roughly the same. In addition, there are Internet and free frequency bands. Use this option if you feel you need to perform suspicious activity that no one will notice. You don't even have to use the call sign there, because your amateur phone doesn't make sense there anyway. ;)

> In my opinion, encryption is nonsense.

Encryption is a fairly standard way to ensure the integrity of a message, and it is also a fairly standard way to absolutely prove that this is your message. You publish your open key and use your private key to encrypt the message. Anyone who receives your information will know that it is yours, and no one can forge your identity.

Now any malicious person can use your ham ID.

> If we start to use encryption, we will be targeted like spies.

Wow. I can't imagine using encryption nowadays will become terrible.

> Or regarded as something equivalent to dark web users.

Or, maybe users of HAD sites receive encrypted data from the server and send encrypted data?

This is strange and scary. Maybe I just woke up in some terrible, ugly, authoritarian alternative reality?

You confuse message signing with encryption. The message signature is completely legal. Encryption is not because it obscures the content. The signature does not obscure the content, but it allows you to verify that the message has not been changed and that it is from the correct source.

If encryption is allowed in amateur bands, then amateur operators will no longer have any space, because it will become a place for companies to send data. Since it is encrypted, the rules cannot be enforced.

People who want to encrypt amateur bands want to restore it to commercial use.

> People who want to encrypt amateur bands want to restore it to commercial use.

Really? What are the benefits of low-speed, low-reliability, and high-complexity communication methods? And you need to use encryption to build a custom transceiver. What commercial use are you talking about?

If you want to talk about commercial use, let's talk about overpriced factory-made transceivers. I always wondered why they were allowed to be in the ham band. Hobbyists should build their own radios instead of using commercial radios. They are amateurs, aren't they?

> What are the benefits of low-speed, low-reliability, and high-complexity communication methods?

Basic IoT things, such as delivery tracking, you have a transmitter connected to a thing, and you want to know where it is. It does not need to be very reliable, nor does it need to transmit large amounts of information.

Here, we encountered the same basic problem as the LoRa network. It runs on the "free" ISM frequency, which is already full of commercial products such as weather stations or wireless microphones/headphones. This is why there are all kinds of Rules such as listen first, talk later, transmission time restrictions based on the EIRP of the device, and must use certified modules instead of building your own radio, otherwise it will be an absolute mess. You trade a kind of freedom for restrictions elsewhere, because you can't eat cake at the same time.

I can almost hear "Hello, comrade, we noticed that you encrypted your speech. We need to look at your files now."

You cannot have privacy because the argument that you may be doing something unpleasant does not sound like Orwellian at all. Not at all.

It’s not that you have done something bad, but you can’t tell the difference between legal use and illegal use, so it will be used as a convenient cover for illegal operations and ruin it for the rest of us.

"This will ruin the lives of the rest of us"

The regulator is the bad guy here, for reference only. There is no obligation to restrict freedom of speech to combat criminal activities. Don't blame those who want to communicate privately over the radio, but blame those who deprive you of your rights.

"The regulator is the bad guy here"

This is just a reasonable rule, no matter who implemented it, or whether it was fully implemented. You also have a moral obligation not to do whatever you want, anytime, anywhere, because everyone will suffer. This is the tragedy of the commons here. Only if you think about it in advance, without considering your personal interests, taking into account other people, can you solve this problem.

If you let amateur radio become the RF Wild West, it will soon be shut down by the authorities or become unusable in any other way, or you may be associated with criminals who use the spectrum for covert operations.

Or think of it this way:

What will happen to the image board/Chen without restraint? First it became full of trolls, then it became full of lunatics who took trolls seriously, and then lunatics who started arguing with each other, and at the same time, bots started sending it spam with illegal content. If you can't kick people out for misbehaving, and you don't enforce any rules, then all real users will leave, and you are left with criminals. Regardless of the medium, the result is always the same. If you want to destroy a perfect hobby, the best way is to deprive the community of all power to regulate behavior.

The difficulty is that there are no good rules and no good rulers. They always compromise, but you can always get around them in some way, and then it is said that you negate the rules-but this is not a real argument. It just admits that you can't have everything at once.

You seem to miss the point, I'm afraid. Amateur radio is an open "service", not a private thing. It is public and experimental. This is why we have and need many bands. The results of this experiment (radio wave propagation analysis, new speech codecs, etc.) sometimes end up useful to any radio user. For encrypted transmission, other radio services are already available. Why do you insist on encrypting amateur bands? :)

All of these can be changed. In addition, the answer to your question is "because it is fun".

Because cryptography is one of my favorite courses in college, and it will be fun to try?

Learning how to build hardware encryption devices—and being able to test them under real-world conditions with interference, etc.—sounds explosive!

But the community has overthrown and abandoned the idea of ​​innocence, until we are proven guilty, we will all become spies!

You can use cryptographic signatures, so you can verify your identity. You just can't cover up the actual transmission.

If the message is plain text, encryption is allowed to ensure the integrity of the message under current regulations. It is only forbidden if encryption is to obscure the meaning of the communication. See FCC rules, 97.113(4).

So, what about the "number station"? They can do it, but you can't. Why? Where are your FCC rules?

Well, there is nothing you can do with them, right?

Why? So, if someone crosses a street without crosswalks, why can't you? Because this is just stupid behavior.

"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."

Yes, no thanks, I have heard of that before.

Think of it this way: if HAM starts encrypting communications, then drug dealers and criminals can get mixed in—after all, no one knows what other people are talking about.

As long as everyone should be open to this, you can check and see who is misbehaving at any time. This keeps the system open. If you start doing things like cloaks and daggers, then the real bad guys will join you.

> If HAM starts to encrypt communications, then drug dealers and criminals can get involved

Why do you think the current rules somehow make this impossible? Now, drug dealers and criminals can easily communicate using typical ham conversations. They only need to negotiate the "language" and nothing more.

It doesn't. It just makes it easy to manage.

Of course, you can use concealed code, but when you keep someone listening, it becomes very transparent to keep talking about "Bring Aunt Rose Rose". This is the same as not using encryption: when normal communication occurs in public, people can detect when you are trying to hide something, so they can pay more attention and investigate. If everyone hides things by default, you can't even doubt it, because criminal activity looks exactly like normal activity without any hint or strangeness.

> Of course, you can use concealed code, but when you have been listening to someone, you have been talking about "Bring Aunt Rose Rose" and it becomes very transparent

No, that's just stupid. Smart criminals will not use this "encryption". You can encode the data in any way-pauses between words, transition time, word order, etc. Therefore, encryption cannot be detected. At the same time, this is one of the main tips for good encryption.

Second, why would criminals use this unreliable and relatively complicated way to communicate? For them, just using public services is much easier. So they do.

You are talking about the openness of communication. It's ok. However, in this case, why at the same time you don’t ask to disable HTTPS on hackaday.com? Now you are encrypting your conversation with hackaday.com. Is there anything you want to hide, or what criminal activity? It seems hypocritical.

This is not the point. The argument that "there are no clever criminals" is just a nirvana fallacy. Of course, some smart criminal planners can bypass it and hide it in a conspicuous place, but its bandwidth is very low, and the effort has exceeded its value. In fact, you admit it. The point here is not to make any petty criminals too easy to mix in-for those who really want to break the rules, you can't do much anyway.

Why not disable HTTPS? Because I have to exchange actual important information online. I will not broadcast my credit card number on amateur radio-that is not its purpose.

The prohibition of encryption is actually to prevent commercial interests from using amateur frequency bands as free resources in secret.

Haha, this is a new idea for me. Thank you for your enlightenment.

I think radio encryption hatred may be a slippery slope. You can argue two very different aspects. One possibility is freedom of speech and freedom from government oppression. Imagine another situation: there is a lot of anonymous and encrypted communication in a city near the president's visit. The latter makes me nervous about a bad actor.

In other words, I think encryption should be a right, but it must be regulated to prevent bad actors from abusing it.

Crime and espionage are secondary threats. The threat of commercial exploitation has been the biggest reason to continue to prohibit encryption for amateurs. Good guys and bad guys can’t be distinguished, even if the good guys are suitable for them, they will be bad. Example: A maritime cruiser wants to exchange private emails on HF. They can do so legally on Marine SSB, but it is easier and cheaper to obtain amateur SSB radio, so they use a proprietary encryption system in the amateur band. Many are sloppy operators and do not check before transmission. They are the thin edges of the encryption wedges.

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-121982.html

The rules really need to be updated. I am an encryption nerd, so I think you are there, but encrypted data channels may not be a beginner. Having said that, I want some clearer wording about acceptable encryption uses, such as for authentication, authorization, and integrity. I think using them does not violate the spirit of HAM.

I also hope to allow the use of encrypted data in some cases, even; maybe there are some restrictions on power level, directivity, duty cycle, data rate, etc. However, this may be more like a pipe dream.

I also agree with your second point. Such restrictions seem to hinder the spirit of experimentation. OTOH, such as Joe Taylor and his friends recently proposed many novel digital models, and they did not encounter any wit to violate the rules. So is this a practical problem? If it still is, I can imagine it would be beneficial to have a "registry" of experimental protocols that map to identifiers that can be used to satisfy the rules. The FCC has a great opportunity to provide such registration, haha, but maybe ARRL. (I think this also has a great opportunity.)

If you transmit at low enough power, no one is wise anyway, and you can ignore any regulations. It's like making a potato gun in your garage-technically, this may be illegal in some places, but as long as you don't use a whip to take it out in public, you're fine.

I work overtime as an amateur. When I was young, I learned about tubes and transistors from a tutor at an amateur radio club in rural Kansas. I'm still doing link budgeting and circuit board layout, which is my life's profession. Amateur radio let me start in a small town where other options are agriculture. In the environment where satellite phones are used for global emergency communication, "emergency communication" is the main reason for amateur radio enthusiasts, which really requires credibility. I *really* saw broadcast clubs voluntarily work in food banks and disaster recovery in disaster-affected areas. Obviously, amateur radio and amateur radio operators greatly benefit the public.

OTOH I found it almost impossible to hire an engineer who really understands the actual RF, no matter how much you pay or what degree you need...just to say.

Of course, this is a hobby, and so is the civil aviation patrol. Many pilots are from CAP. I agree that amateur radio may need to be reformed and renamed. Perhaps youth training and RF scholarship programs may be a good start to help develop future hams. Local clubs can use spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, voltmeters, wattmeters, drill presses, soldering stations, etc. to make amateur radio "makerspaces", and may also provide training seminars, guidance, seminars, etc. They can contact continuing education groups. Due to the cost of equipment and the scarcity of practical guidance, it is difficult for novices to enter the field of radio frequency electronics. Must be a national initiative. ARRL? If it doesn't happen, I agree that ham radio may drop sharply without replenishing the wear and tear of aged ham. Amateur radio is not just about middle-aged people in their 80s and 40s and their crazy politics and conspiracy theories. It may be more. In today's world of $50 worth of network analyzers and SDRs, it may be the perfect platform for renaissance. Otherwise, it is the specter of Christmas's future, including a reference to Radio Shack.

Ensure that the communication infrastructure always exists until it does not exist. I have lived. My special forces partners still use HF and CW, of course they are encrypted. Why? Because the infrastructure is always there until it is gone. In addition, digital models and other emerging technologies have enhanced emergency response preparedness. Bring them! And I didn't feel that I was not a "real" ham because I didn't have a soldering station.

What "stifled" Ham Radio in the United States is the inability to install outdoor antennas, especially below the 2 meter (146 MHz) frequency band. If you rent a house, or even own your house in most cases, in most cases, there will be some regulations, contracts, or homeowners’ association restrictions these days that prevent you from putting the antenna outside, even almost impossible See a thin thread. At best you will be allowed to do this, but it is not without skipping the circle of fire and suffering some serious restrictions. From then on, anyone who has problems with cable TV or the Internet will blame you. Recently, there have been some improvements in the installation of antennas for higher frequency bands (2 meters wavelength and above). Because the antenna is quite small, you may claim that the antenna is used for HDTV reception and it is protected. After the launch of free digital TV stations, the current federal law . The dysfunctional American Radio Relay Federation (ARRL) tried to pass Congress through legislation to protect amateur radio license holders from these outdoor antenna restrictions, but they really messed up the whole thing and eventually made the problem worse. Bad.

People can always use helium balloons on a thin string to make the desired large antenna. I think I discussed this issue here 2 years ago. Someone wanted to hide the antenna in the flagpole...

In my opinion, amateur radio needs more relaxed and humorous people. Currently, there are too many hard legs going into competitions instead of social activities. Even young people (based on my experience, mainly students or on-the-job engineers), they act as if they are already very old. mentally. These ham compatriots focused on obtaining higher prestige permits, rather than living out the ham spirit. Or build anything. To my surprise, many CBers have an innate ham spirit and are keen on DIY, and recently like to build repeaters. So, in my opinion, hackers/manufacturers and CBers can help bring amateur radio back on track. It is not necessarily an ancient hobby. We have satellites, SSTV from the International Space Station, or high-altitude hot air balloons. This is not all. On the noisy shortwave band, it can be much more than FT8 or telegraph. One day, Ham may even maintain contact with human colonies on the moon or Mars.

In the 2020s, HAM is just an elitist, bitter old lemon party.

It's more than that. I am my best proof. :D But there are some truths in elitism.. Too many competitors and too few normal QSOs ("ragchew"). In addition, there is a huge telegraph boom. Amateur radio as a whole is degrading to CW and shortwave and 2M repeater operation. Or worse, FT4/8, which does not require an operator at all. It kind of saddens me. We have achieved a lot since the 1970s. Satellite, SSTV, digital mode, open voice codec, protocol, etc. But now we behave like consumers, constantly buying the latest Kenwood, Yaesus and Icom. If it were not for the emergence of SDR technology, amateur radio would technically die. In any case, it is too stuck in the old super-het/CW world. Society sees us as old, wealthy, and grumpy people who do completely strange things. Amateur radio operators are no longer regarded as young and lively tinkers. They develop new technologies, or are kind or helpful, and occasionally repair nearby household appliances. Instead, this picture is of a nostalgic, anti-social fool, sitting in a dark room with a straight key and a creepy antenna monster on the table. I think we must change this.

In many countries in this world, amateur radio was and is governed by laws of the Cold War or earlier. In Austria, this was a problem that was resolved only two years ago; before that, your expression of opinions was severely restricted. The situation was worse before AT joined the European Union, because amateur radio was also seen as a competitor to the national telecommunications monopoly and its overpriced services.

Any country bordering Russia still has to deal with that ****. You cannot use 4G cellular networks near the Eastern Front because Russia uses military radar frequencies and often interferes with transmissions. The same goes for amateur radio frequencies. Anything that is not strictly prohibited by international treaties, they will do it unkindly.

In the UK, a group called Essex Ham has been vigorously encouraging "making" agreements. There is also a subgroup "people in the shed".

Of course, amateur radio is elitist. This is one of only two hobbies that require passing an exam to fully participate. (The other is aviation).

You forgot about guns (even in the United States, the background check process for every dealer purchase is a kind of test), driving a motor vehicle on public roads, and other things that I didn't pay attention to. I would not call it an elitist, it is necessary for public safety/order. In the case that the radio keeps military, aviation, emergency and commercial frequency bands free from interference. At least as far as taking the exam in the US, it seems (I haven’t bothered) as simple as possible, at least before the plague, learning materials are available online for free, appearing like 10 dollars, you can take everything if you want Take the exam 3 times at a time.

I found that the barrier to entry was not the permit, but what I should do with it. What I am most interested in is all the long-distance old-fashioned analog HF band types, with self-made equipment, I really don't have enough space to hang a suitable 40M dipole or other things.

A driver’s license does not prohibit you from carrying any goods you want to wherever you want to go. This is a huge difference from the ham license.

When working on non-amateur radio related projects, I often check call signs, which is fine in itself. Although I have a license, I almost never transmit data to the final test radio, antenna, and other equipment I design and manufacture. When I refuse to send a call sign to an annon with an unverifiable call sign (perhaps anyone who uses the number string), I am referred to as my home address. We need to get rid of the poisonous bad police self-regulatory fetishism in our community. I am no longer involved. I am actually sorry, when I ran the county fire and EMS in the 2000s, I tried to build a RACES team. The poisonous shot killed the self police. Use cheap radios to hunt down new teenage hams and scare the parents who suppressed cool hams. It's a mess, these tools will eventually deprive our precious and tough band from commercial auctions. As for online self-search by call sign, I would like to have an FCC 1-shot call sign hash portal so that we can provide verifiable call sign alternatives without passing our home address. Some of us have experienced domestic violence, stalking or other serious reasons in our lives who need to keep confidential.

What can prevent someone from using only other people's callsigns to fish to get more callsigns? I think there needs to be a signature system to verify that the message was actually sent by a legitimate party.

You seem a bit like me. I kind of like amateur radio, but I really don’t like ARRL, and think it’s not good for the FCC to provide amateur bands to them.

Cellular services have already gained most of the utility from VHF. It used to be cool to be able to press a tone in a phone number and say hello on the radio when no one else can do it. Times have changed. Almost everyone can now not only communicate personally, but can now record and transmit video while sitting in their pockets. The Internet has already made many people get pleasure from HF. I can chat with friends all over the world.

Amateur radio has largely degraded to the old people buying things to play, so that they can chat with other old people who buy things.

I think three things will go a long way in reviving a hobby, although they will not be welcomed by many hams and commercial enterprises.

First, there is no test license for any mode, but the power limit is 10 watts. Some young people use SDR and small QRP rigs to do cool things. Make it easier for them to board and get involved. I suspect they are much larger than the RF noise generated by the old brushed AC/DC motors on my skill saw.

Second, crack down on NPR and open up some commercial FM frequency bands to local community radio stations. They will be responsible for the same program licensing as any other broadcaster, so if they want music, they need sponsors, old music that is no longer hindered, or new music from bands that allow such use. Limit the power again and make the application easy. If there are many applications in one area, try to combine them. Community radio was a good idea some time ago, but NPR is very opposed to it. Things to consider when they beg for donations.

Third, provide a frequency band for any traffic, whether encrypted or not. Encourage new codecs and digital options. Once again, use a simple no-test license for low-power usage.

The rest is handed over to ARRL and their security patrol hall monitors.

But it does not work like that. The permit is to let Ham know what they are doing. Entry level is much easier than it was fifty years ago. Those who are interested in the hobby as a technological playground will not be intimidated by the license.

Once access does not require a license, then everyone who wants to play on the radio can do it. It will not improve the technical level. There will be no enforcement from the authorities or self-regulation (look at the comments here), so anyone can use the ham band to do anything.

There are CB and FRS (and some other services that require a license but do not need to be tested), suitable for people who want to talk over the radio. But people are unwilling to endure the restrictions of the CB and are unwilling to obtain a legal ham license.

What is the relationship between adding a broadcast frequency band and amateur radio?

People have been talking about the need for encryption, but no one is talking about the use they need to encrypt. How does encryption bring more technology enthusiasts? All this seems to be more about people talking nonsense on the radio than technical experiments.

Back when I was active, one of my favorite things was to try the secret or invisible HF antenna design, it really gave a sense of resistance to partisanship in World War II. I even built a rough DIY redesigned tube parasitic radio for QRPing to complete this idea. You will be amazed at what you can do with a gray wire or a near-ground dipole of an indoor wall loop. It is definitely not as good as the HF yaggi mounted on the mast, but still interesting.

In addition to electronic hobbies, amateur radio used to be one of the only ways to communicate economically while on the move or to make calls around the world. Now, mobile phones and the Internet provide these functions. Therefore, in order to attract new blood, we need to focus on the few things that amateur radio can still provide but mobile phones and the Internet cannot provide, and the initial path of these functions needs to be as cheap as possible.

I recommend using an absolutely cheap, community-designed, RX-only SDR radio, and you can easily add as many single-band QRP TX modules as cheap as possible. QRP DX, like all DX jobs, has the same appeal as fishing sports, but the additional challenge is that it can capture contacts on the other side of the world with only a few watts of power. Another thing unique to amateur radio is the reception and decoding of hamsat communication or just real-time hamsat telemetry.

RTL-SDR is almost the best. Use "ham-it-up" or hfspy upconverter, it really is a great receiver. bitx40 and ubitx are great transceivers. They are a bit expensive, but not very expensive. A 40m dipole 15 feet above the ground is useful for me on CW and SSB.

I have been an amateur since 1965. I like several different aspects of amateur radio. I hugged some people and stayed away from others. I use CW Morse code most of the time. I use some SDR radios and like satellite communications. Weak signal work and moon bounce are my future. I am currently building a project to make broadcasting interesting. QRP low-power radio. Individuals can find their own tips in amateur radio and continue to work hard. There is no club near you, then find some like-minded people and start a club. It really is that simple. Finding like-minded people is to build a network in your area of ​​interest. Reach out. Start a long-distance club through Zoom or one of the other video programs. Let amateur radio work for you.

Spectrum ham can also be accessed is gold! But most modern applications require high data throughput, which usually means expensive. There is LORA, but now it has a commercial perspective as an alternative telemetry network for the 915MHz ISM band. Hams can do LORA at 440, and it is not limited to 1W like undocumented users. Want private WiFi. ? If your WiFi device allows, you can use channel 1 below 2.4GHz because the HAM band will be reduced a bit. So there are several angles like this. Ubiquiti has a radio and older firmware that can implement a "lab mode".

Working in the RF industry, reusing commercial equipment for repeater construction and other purposes is a major motivation. The old paging or relay station...no problem. But now, an outdated CDMA base station that may cost 6 digits may only have GPS training clocks that can be reused. Even at the end of AMPS, we saw the 800 MHz frequency agility auto-tuning combiner... fascinating technology... was abandoned.... And there is nothing to retune to 900 MHz for amateur radio.

The modernization of APRS from the simple but unreliable ALOHA has always been a motivation. But I have yet to see these projects gaining attention. Through the cellular Internet of Things, the practical perspective is lost.

I think it will make rags chew... My wife once asked me: "Why do you want to talk to a stranger, and when can you talk to me?" I never really recovered from it.

What killed the amateur radio? Misusing the band’s preparer and ARRL's $30 Baofeng HT $49 per year QST/ARRL membership in order to take a leadership role in emergency communications, you have invested time and money to help your community. Many redundant VHF/UHF repeater equipment are reused for ham. Repeaters are not installed because they are needed, but because some people like to play with repeaters. All repeater frequencies are allocated in many areas but are rarely used. LIDS on the HF band. Excessively expensive plug-and-play amateur radio equipment, such as a mounting bracket that costs less than US$5, costs US$50. Networks like WInlink (they use AWS) are overly dependent on commercial backbone networks, which should operate "when everything else fails." Right-wing paramilitary organizations use radio waves under the guise of an aerial Bible reading group. Not everyone can use surface mount technology to make their own equipment. Government groups that accepted amateur radio for em-comm were dissuaded by volunteers who acted like idiots. EmmComm uses the ham band as an excuse to prevent the ham band from being sold by the FCC to the highest bidder. I can keep going...

Amateur radio is a service first, and a hobby second. The word "hacker" has a rather negative connotation. Maybe this is why some hams avoid it.

I have a lot of fun and I like challenges. I will try Hacker, but if I find it neither interesting nor challenging for me, then try it.

When the license was obtained in 1972, it was still Canada's "amateur experimental service". This is how my certificate of ability is written.

This is a hobby, it has always been. The rules clearly state that all of this is about doing things with the ultimate goal.

"Service" does not come from what you are doing, but from the legal terminology used by regulatory agencies. "Citizen Radio Service", "Home Radio Service", "Multi-Purpose Radio Service", "Universal Mobile Radio Service".

Some problems with amateur bands. The first (at least in the US) is the "symbol rate rule", which does not allow data with a bandwidth lower than 900 MHz higher than 56 Kbps. This has a serious impact on the usefulness of amateur radio and makes those who may be interested in WAN experiments but other amateurs (possibly on mesh networks and other WAN topologies). In fact, when it comes to what we do with it, the entire spectrum above 50MHz does require serious reflection. When the tower can be reached and the ham...may be unpopular, but at least tolerable in some commercial establishments, it makes sense to coordinate repeaters. Today, Crown and AT have almost all sites, so it is unlikely that there will be more radio equipment. Hot digital voice operators are the general trend, but it will take a long time to break the old "big stick and big stick" thinking. I would like to see many low-power repeaters that can be switched, similar to cellular networks, but this requires coordination and planning that traditional coordinators cannot understand.

This is followed by the prohibition of ARQ in the HF band, because some narrow-minded but highly prestigious amateurs believe that ARQ is only suitable for receiving emails on your yacht without paying for satellite link fees. See also: comments from the ARRL symbol rate petition.

Third, none of the experimental SDR products have passed Part 97 certification, which means they are sold as test equipment. Admittedly, getting DAC certification is a bit difficult, but without this, the transmitter will be trapped under 1 watt. Of course, we all know that the QRP man used one-tenth of a watt of power for the old enameled wire antenna in Botswana, but how many years did it take? For anything with a good PA, you need to filter out harmonics. This is not something that is easy to obtain, and neither is a high-quality UHF linear amplifier. Once you get the ticket and equipment, you turn on the radio and hear the noise from the switching power supply and other "technologies", so the only signal that can pass through is Dabang. They are one of the worst covers there.

Finally, the old opinions about first responders disappeared with FirstNet and enhanced cellular sites and COTS ISM band network equipment. In the past, the incident commander wanted everyone to be on the hose, but now they are willing to send people to the hillside to set up the network AP because they see that ATAK is asking them to coordinate the staff and know where they are without a lot of voice traffic. For amateurs, FEMA's requirements for courses and background checks are a real barrier, especially if you don't understand EMCOM.

I'm sure this is largely a question of whether there was a chicken or an egg first, but now there are no chickens and no eggs. It's just a group of roosters crowing.

For more than a hundred years, Ham has made transmitters. This is one thing that people can get by obtaining a ham license, which is the right to use the transmitter.

Build your SDR, and you can use it to do whatever you want (within the broad rules applicable to amateur radio).

If you want to use a module, what is the difference between buying a ready-made ham equipment? l

The maker movement has messed up things.

It has been ham since 1992. It was interesting at the time, and the only reason I stay active now is for emcom. Most amateurs now want to turn amateur radios into smart phones. Just buy a smart phone.

Well, considering so many responses, this has already resonated with readers. Jenny, the article on this topic is great!

I think hackers and RF go hand in hand: Captain crunch and 2600, Max clearance and WTTW hijacking, general eavesdropping..., hijacking emergency alert radio communications,

In the final analysis, people are keen on technology and good at using it. Regardless of the topic, you will always have rule followers and spoilers. The amateur radio community needs to embrace the hacker community wholeheartedly. It also helps strengthen the security of our emergency communications and prevent bad actors. After all, we are all geeks. In my opinion, the more the better, the stronger the community!

Well said, the hacker started it, and the hacker can revive it.

I thought we stopped talking about that person...

There are many opportunities to break the rules, play music, insult others and cause total damage to the HF spectrum. If you choose this way. It is called the 11m CB band. What distinguishes amateur radio from CB are regulations, agreements, and respect for hobbies. Broadcasting is about relationships, no matter how short the QSO is. I didn't see bad operators using other people's call signs, just as I saw people fabricating fake names for themselves in face-to-face communication. This makes no sense. Bad operators are often brazen and use their own call signs anyway, or, in fact, usually no call signs at all. 73, W5NED.

Strongly disagree that amateur radio needs to be "away from" emergency communications. Why? This is not a zero-sum game. There are a lot of hams doing EMCOM, a lot of people doing hacking and homemade software, others chasing DX, some people participating in competitions, and so on. do you know? There are even hams engaged in two, three or more aspects of hobbies. this is correct. Most hams, including the elderly, can indeed chew gum and walk at the same time.

I have seen amateur radio as an advertisement for emergency communication goods. I live in Silicon Valley and have a local ham group. They are keen on emergency communications and offer courses for interested volunteers throughout the year. I have never seen this kind of "intensity" (pronounced: anus) in an organization manager. They make it less interesting and more like a chore. In fact, I can't stand many leaders. When we started participating in the Zoom meeting, this group was unable to keep up with the times and took drastic measures to ensure that people were still paying attention to the Zoom meeting, such as a quiz every 20 minutes. If anyone on the SCC-ARES team is reading this article, please tell your leader that they are idiots. This is a volunteer organization. Don't take things too seriously!

I also experienced the wildfire panic in 2020, when the huge SCU complex and the Santa Cruz fire were forcing and threatening the evacuation of millions of people in Silicon Valley. The Hams, especially the emergency repeaters that have set up all these...dead. No traffic at all. Zilch. Nada. No. empty. Quiet. It's so pathetic. I have to get news and instructions on what to do through a Facebook group. It was at this moment that I knew I was deceived by a lie about amateur radio.

So yes, amateur radio as an emergency communications asset may have been correct about 20 years ago, but it is no longer the case today. The Internet infrastructure is very well built, and it will never really fail. It may be applicable to local areas, but as supporting infrastructure is in place, it will recover soon. From my point of view, if I can’t get internet, power or mobile phone reception, then I might be messed up anyway. When every ham operator is in the dark like me, what exactly is ham radio to me? A radio that listens to local news will be more practical.

I also want to say that many hobbies are occupied by grumpy old guys. They want to keep this hobby as elite as possible, which scares off many newcomers. In fact, when I finished my ham cram school, I was stumped by the supreme arrogance of some old hams. They made fun of Baofeng Radio and called it rubbish, but they didn't realize how ignorant this statement was. It is precisely because of Baofeng Radio that you fools have more people to talk on the radio. However, most old hams are unpleasant at best. There are relay groups who dislike and welcome newcomers. On the contrary, they are mean and annoying to them so that they can own the entire system.

In addition, air conversations are usually affected by weather and antennas. There are not many opportunities to get to know or truly understand a person. Most conversations are superficial at best. When I listened to Winsystem a few days ago, I realized that most elderly people do not have any interpersonal skills at all.

This is a dying hobby for many reasons, many of which are related to the old fools who currently occupy the airwaves.

Seeing so many suggestions about SDR, I was disappointed. I suggest (begging) people to start from the basics by building their own devices. A simple DC receiver can be made from more than a dozen such common parts, and you will learn from it better than simply adopting a "do everything from scratch" plug-in box. As an older operator (G4-ticket), I am building a simple CW 40m receiver by using 6U8 tubes and a 15W transmitter using a pair of off-the-shelf tubes that are not easily damaged (try bad SWR on solid ) To restore tube technology. State set...), a total of about 30 components are used. Check out any QRP site (QRP=low power) as a source of simple projects that will inspire you to delve into this fascinating and educational hobby.

However, SDRs are neat. About the only real innovation in recent years.

Of course, the direct conversation receiver is neat. In fact, they are also the basis of SDR.

I made one by myself using EF95 tube and crystal. Use Dream software and sound card to listen to RTL Radio with DRM on 3995.

When I was young, I made a crystal radio and led a long wire antenna from the window into the garden.

The problem is that AM broadcasting in AM has almost disappeared. At least here, in Europe.

Of course, regenerative receivers are also very interesting. So you can hear SSB/CW. Grumpy hams talk about their health or telegraphers play the game. It's fun for them, but for boring SWL. But that is all.

Special drawing rights provide more. You can do FM, QAM, etc. The frequency is up to 2GHz. Literally, you can do anything with SDR. It is essentially a spectrum analyzer. You can even use the IF output to use a panoramic monitor on your equipment. Unless you are using the somewhat restricted FT-817/818. ;)

Having said that, I hope amateur radio is the best. I always try my best to "make it great again" (sorry, but I can't resist).

The problem is that it is difficult to fight windmills. Some older hams and some young, snobbish hams make it difficult to present amateur radio as a society composed of vivid and kind people with technical qualifications and personal skills. "They need humor," Yoda would say. :D

To my surprise, I recently saw more ham spirits from CBers than I saw (heard) from ham. Of course, this is not representative. Maybe the situation in the United States or the United Kingdom is different, not sure. But this makes me think...

If I can make a device that is actually an echolink for texting, it will inject new vitality into amateur radio. I will throw away my cell phone, send a text message via packet radio, my hometown will receive this text message, and then shuttle from there to where I want to go. I can forward it to my mobile phone, and then when a reply is received, my computer can send it to my portable SMS device via a data packet. I know that the interface with commercial networks is a big problem, and the inability to encrypt text is also a big problem-but aside from the rules, imagine how cool it can be. I know APRS, but I'm talking about something completely different, or at least something that can interact well with APRS. Unfortunately, the characteristics of digital formats do not adapt well to multiple formats without a lot of confusion. Some universally recognized format may be the solution-but this is still a pipe dream, because no one can Agree on anything. This is a bit like the difference between CDMA/GSM and mobile phones. That's why I can't see amateur radio go further than it is now. I see a lot of debates and disagreements about digital formats, which is why I like to have simple analog conversations on HF and VHF/UHF. In any case, this does not make me correct, but this is my opinion. Back to my original idea-texting via echolink would be great! Compared with just calling CQDX or CQ Contest and exchanging signal reports, it actually plays a useful role. Before the Internet and mobile phones were widely used, it *really* had a useful purpose-I know it was because I had a ticket at the time, but now all the old reasons that encourage people to enter this hobby-that is, "free" long distances to the outside world The communication world-basically disappeared. The high-level organization behind the commercial communications enterprise (cellular company) and the standardization of the communication format make it work well.

The third is about free thinking, not wanting any reputation or acknowledging and sharing ideas, and being open to new discussions or shared ideas and extensions. This is what amateurs mean to me. Share knowledge with people who know how to do it, are willing to help without wanting anything in return, and are patient

The problem is not the hobby, but the business and the people behind it. Technology is not to stifle initiative, but to stifle the people who use it. I actually like tinkering with electronics and all technical things, but my days are numbered. I just live on a Raspberry Pi, build a grid (main power) system network from messy ideas, try new ideas to make old things, usually I like to play with radio, electronic products and open source IT, but my funds are very limited. of. In a sense, this is a good thing, because it means I can’t walk into the store to buy the best and most expensive commercial multi-band radios and antennas, I have to use what I have available, so my idea is the world The economy and pace all kill the general hobby and initiative. No one has patience, universal skills and initiative anymore. Look at what our ancestors did, most of the time it was some kind of military prisoner somewhere. The only thing he has is his thoughts, idle things and time (a lot, he is not in a hurry, if it is not completed, so what. The most beautiful large and small handmade products, everything from scrap wood to metal. You only need Use your mind (instead of letting it rot in the rat race world without knowing it) and use the things around you. I hardly throw away anything (to make my wife frustrated) because tomorrow I have to just need something like this Something can even start gray matter work, or I may not be able to find anything. Who ever thought that simple things like valves (pentodes, etc.) or Russian door handle caps or air core adjustable caps would be so high today This is impossible to find, so you have to use initiative and build something similar. You see, everything now has to do with money and time. Get rid of it and try to do it in an out-of-the-box thinking and way Some useful things, patience, plus not wanting to get any recognition, money or fame from them, are all amateurs.

The amateur radio community is not interested in the maker community. I have had greater success in getting manufacturers to accept amateur radio. For manufacturers, amateur radio is another arrow in their problem-solving quiver.

I just like this hippie argument that intellectual property is not real. And people who depend on their parents. Well, you are staring at that untrue intellectual property, and you are using it to write stupid comments on a website full of intellectual property. Your computer is made up of the intellectual property of smart people who waste time, energy and resources to develop it. You are using a web browser created by people based on their ideas and work, and may be provided for free, but they still need tools to do this, place to live, food, clothes, electricity, etc.

Therefore, if everyone steals software, music, e-books, movies, and TV shows, who will pay content creators to produce these content? This covers all IP, and this is reality-handle it in a mature and responsible way, or live in the world of thieves you fantasize about...

My country used to be a socialist republic, and we also have ham. I even own a 1978 Radioamateur manual. At that time, Hams did not protect freedom of speech by using ether to speak, because all outgoing transmissions were tracked and recorded by state, but no one could track who was listening to what. So Ham makes radio receivers and sells them so that people can listen to Western radio stations. When some freedom of speech is needed, few of them make radio transmitters for use by people who are struggling with the system. If encryption were allowed at that time, amateur radio would probably be completely illegal in all communist countries from East Germany to China...

As for letting everyone do whatever they want over the radio, imagine living next to a neighbor who just made a 10kW 2,4GHz transmitter and blow up your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and all other radio frequency Sensitive equipment...

My computer is made of plastic and silicon, not "intellectual property rights". If we abolish copyright tomorrow, my computer will still be here, and people will write software for it. life goes on.

Opposing intellectual property rights is not just a hippie argument; there are also capitalist arguments: copyright is a state-enforced monopoly. Why should I be forbidden to build something invented by others? Why not allow me to compete with them? Copyright eliminates competition and slows down innovation. Apart from "I am rich, I want to use the government to make myself richer", there is no good argument to support it.

You can't steal things that don't physically exist.

Of course, in addition to selling them to consumers, keystep clones have a second or third purpose-such as testing how far they can go legally before investing in more expensive direct clones. Others think it has something to do with his supply chain pressure. Who knows... but they cloned it so closely that they didn't even bother to make the slightest improvement... I find it very convincing.

@Anonymous: You are not "forbidden to build something invented by others". You are just not allowed to sell the patented invention and pretend it is your design. At least in countries that belong to WIPO. Go create something interesting :-)

You didn't get that argument at all.

I hate this kind of complaint... "The X community will not tailor the experience I want! The X community needs to transform itself to suit me!!!"

Do not. You need to stop complaining and start building a space that reflects what you want in the X community.

Amateur radio needs to embrace hackers? You have no real experience in the ham community. Almost every ham I know has tried to make its own equipment. Modify the equipment for better performance or adjust it to perform the functions they want; build things that have nothing to do with the communication of amateur bands and other activities. Amateur radio (and model railway culture) is the birthplace of the hacker community.

What really needs to happen is that hackers interested in radio frequency communications or operations should obtain technology licenses and start exploring what they can do with the radio frequency spectrum that they suddenly access.

Stop complaining that Ham will not chase newcomers and start evangelizing to yourself. Build the community you want to see and don’t complain that others haven’t done it for you.

Wait, so you are telling me that a group of old white men sitting in a ham hut and wearing thousands of dollars in gear will not suddenly change their way after reading articles on the website? ! This is 2020! Everyone must succumb to the whimsical ideas of the Internet!

Over the years, I have heard these complaints disgusting. Frankly speaking, I do see amateur radio encompassing all of these activities, including activities that have considerable overlap with the hacker community. Can we do more? certainly. But now enuf. Go back to my "hacking" projects, or whatever you want to label them. Two of them now involve DSP.

Well, at least this discussion prompted me to check whether my license has expired. It will be fine next summer. Maybe Covid restrictions make this a good time to upgrade.

It is very interesting to read the various opinions expressed in this discussion. This just reflects the broad appeal of amateur radio. I don't have any interest in HF competitions, but many others are interested. A few years ago, one of our members gave a speech about the various competitions he participated in at our Ham Club meeting. It's really hard for me to stay awake! But he might feel the same about my interest in modifying old equipment to give new life. And, of course, some "omniscience" may be a real pain, but it only reflects the entire society. We are lucky to have a very active club here. In early 2020, many of us are working hard to set up access to Australia’s Shepparton radio antenna for a 48-hour blitz. That's interesting. I have only talked to a few people, and my main interest is making and installing BALUN. For those interested, here is a link with more information... http://www.sadarc.org/xenforo/upload/index.php?forums/vi3ra-radio-australia-weekend. 9/ It may be that some readers have participated in the event from the "other end" here.

Members of our club are experimenting with various equipment. Even to the extent of making remote monitoring and control power distribution systems for relay stations. I will encourage people to join the radio club and learn electronics. Getting into your current hobby has never been easier.

Wow, this article makes me excited to want to be a licensed ham. Then most of the comments from licensed hams stifled this excitement. I don’t want to talk to most of these people here, and I certainly don’t invest time and money in talking to them on the radio.

The most important thing for me is this: people don’t realize what type of website deaf-mute comments this is, Alex Jones likes to regurgitate "Think about kids!" "Encryption = crime" etc., "rules, rules" , Rules, rules", including "rules are good for you!", all derogatory "hippie" remarks, and reports of amateurs I might want to talk about trying to work with all the hams I don't want to talk to.

I can’t believe that even if an article says “Let’s hug people for x, y, z”, people who should be the target audience say, “Let x, y, z leave my lawn!” Like in life Like most things, old-minded people are destroying amateur radio. By most standards, I am not young, but I will never be that old. Thank you but no thanks. I said let it die and auction all the frequency of progress.

Why not become a ham and become part of the solution? If you think they need to be more friendly, why not be friends by themselves? Remember, the amateur radio world is full of people from the "real" world and covers all types. There are many people I don’t want to associate with, and some hams fall into this category. This does not prevent me from enjoying this hobby. Remember, you can always turn off the radio or switch to another frequency.

Give me another job, this time a "save the world" super ham job? no, thank you. If I have already been invested, I may feel able to accept the challenge. I knew a long time ago that you cannot save others. They can only save themselves. Here, we see many examples of who is killing amateur radio, and it is the amateur radio operator himself. This may be one of the situations where classifying debris may be more useful than preventing disasters.

As a licensed amateur radio operator, I can't wait to read the reviews-I found almost the same moaning as I saw on qrz.com. This can be frustrating. Nevertheless, their tone is still depressing.

On the other hand-I do not broadcast for them or with them. Some of these low-level lives are not even active in broadcasting at all.

In the two years since my amateur radio came back, I was shocked by the knowledge I was able to accumulate—if not proud. I designed my own RF circuit with my toes and found that it was pure black magic; it made standard DC electronics look...vanilla.

I don't have an EE degree, but I read a few books, blocked the usual meanness in QRZ and asked questions-I was able to gain a lot of knowledge. With the right filters (jokers and fools), you can significantly improve the signal-to-noise ratio, and you can learn from very good and knowledgeable people-not just "radio and antenna"-which is fun. You will find life.

It’s also worth noting that most mainstream transceivers provide you with complete schematics-this is a good learning resource-where you can learn how people who make a living designing RF products can solve certain problems problem. I learned a lot from reading schematics. This is an exception to Flex Radio; they are really shameful.

Get your license. Start where you can. Is it just Feng? Go ahead. Can you get more fancy equipment? Ok; it’s good to start big.

try. extensions. Tinker. put up. Write. Documentation. share. Learn. Return. Make memorable connections; whatever the wavelength or mode. Respect the band plan.

Hope to cross the antenna with you by phone, ft8, rtty, sstv or any other mode;

If you judge any activities, hobbies, sports, um, anything that is truly based on the existing members of the community, then you will end up staring at a blank wall in an empty room. Hell, some of the founders of this "hacker" community turned out to be terrible people. Before Googling the question, I have seen the text n@zi discussing the Arduino code. Are you going to uninstall the IDE and throw away all your Unos?

If you want a perfect community where everyone is hospitable and there are sunshine and rainbows everywhere, then go and read Care Bear or My Little Pony's books, because this is the only place you can find.

I think you fully understand the point of the request of [KJ7NZL]: Hobbies need to recruit people with new ideas. So, instead of rejecting it because of its existing residents, why not join it and help diversify the population? Broadcasting as a hobby is not for everyone, but if it is, why not become part of the solution through participation?

Besides, there is nothing saying that you have to use it as a "phone"-I certainly won't. So you can avoid listening to conspiracy theories by not listening. It's like I don't agree with the things on 4chan on the Internet, but its existence does not allow me to avoid the entire Internet.

I totally agree with the author, even though he made rude comments about those who like emcomm "fetishism".

However, experimenters and hackers will not accept System Fusion's proprietary, licensed IP, garbage world, etc.

I hope that a large number of current and future members of the amateur radio community will pursue the experimentation and "art" of radio communication. Using closed source code and licensed IP "equipment" products is not conducive to the freedom of experimentation. It also sends error messages.

I very much agree-the existence of these proprietary products seems to run counter to the spirit of HAM.

I really don't agree with [KJ7NZL]'s suggestion to reduce emcomm use promotion-this facility is part of the reason HAM gets the spectrum. I think people forget that the FCC is hostile because their motive is to allocate spectrum for collective benefit, which actually means a lot of consideration for business people who pay $$$$. (For example, we just lost 3.3-3.5 GHz) http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-orders-amateur-access-to-3-5-ghz-band-to-sunset. ARRL is a HAM lobby group in Washington that aims to continue to allocate spectrum for HAM. Part of the work is a reason for non-commercial use of HAM, and part of the reason is emcomm activities. Please don't/don't/reduce the promotion of emcomm.

I am a hame, and this is my opinion on the 3.3-3.5 GHz spectrum loss. The FCC assigned us bty hams, usually hams did not use it, but the FCC reassigned it. The RF spectrum is a limited resource and unreasonable. For amateurs, it is expected that any part of it will always be idle. Funding for the FCC? ? Due to the reduction in working capital, which businesses of the FCC really want them to cancel?

Understand the use of TV, mobile phone, .HF, UHF, and VHF. Amateur radio is for innovation. Used to prove equipment. Design new equipment. Provide a community for exchanging device information in most cases. Of course, some groups just chat. But most chats are about comparing equipment, conditions, etc.

If you design and build a new supercomputer, what would you think? new idea. Cost everything you need to start it. Next year, when you start to make some money from it, you will find that someone does not have to suffer without money. All the hard work you have done to develop it, launched the same project, but the cost is much lower, because they No development costs? They made a fortune, but you made nothing.

What about pharmaceutical companies that spend millions of dollars to develop something? Reverse engineers and competitors can complete it in a few weeks. Will they do it again. No, neither will you...

The strange thing is how the entire comment chain disappeared here. If the conversation is to be edited/curated to this level, why should comments be allowed?

I just checked it. Although the article says there are 122 comments, only 90 are left. ridiculous.

I noticed. Craig Horne's all-capital comment disappeared completely, and there was a lot of it around. I kind of understand why, because this article tries to encourage new hams, but the old hams discourage everyone. The way for newbies to accept the harsh reality when signing up, they make crazy people yell at them and their hippie ideals. If ham wants to kill their hobby, I say let them. I'm sure we will need new 8G spectrum.

I'm depriving you of the right to ham, but I'm not sure if it's better to hand over the spectrum to large corporations. I hope we can cancel the funding for the FCC so that people can use the radio to do whatever interesting things they want to do, but this will never happen.

The cancellation of FCC funding is unlikely to bring any positive progress. What it will do is let the same giant enterprise run on the rest of us, without megawatts of broadcast power, we can’t use anything. However, as Ajit Pai (may he die a thousand painful deaths) has shown, installing a puppet at the head of the FCC allows you to get everything you want from the airwaves.

Therefore, we need an FCC leader who is anti-company and supports encryption types. Sounds liberal/green. Better than the Republican/Democratic party.

If I view this thread on Hackaday, I can use'Ctrl-F' and cut and paste the name to see it completely. If I view it on WordPress, then I cannot see it. I suspect this may be due to some pedestrians (synchronizing the database? Who knows?) and not any evil things, such as censorship.

I just found Craig Horne on Facebook. He is in all caps, likes Baofeng Radio, likes Trump, and uses Archie Bunker as his profile photo. What a "real" person!

So why do you need to slander this hobby, especially for those who just want to use their license as an insurance policy? How many people have a driver’s license but don’t drive? How many people have a pilot's license but can't fly? They don't need to "hug" anyone for Pete. Let them do what they want. If you are a hacker and want to get involved in ham, get a license and start your own club. ARRL will allow anyone to start a club. Don't try to force people to adapt to you.

The open hardware/open software non-profit hermes-lite project seems to be your idea. This is a DDC/DUC QRP SDR transceiver for amateurs, based on the cracking of the cable modem IC. http://www.hermeslite.com/

The FCC regulations are very clear (I believe all countries that license amateur radio) do not allow encryption on the amateur band, but some things seem to have passed. One is D-Star, a digital speech coding system from radio manufacturer Icom. I'm not sure about the current state, but it was initially only used on Icom radios and used a proprietary chip made by Icom. The fact that the encoding and decoding schemes are not publicly documented makes it a de facto encryption. Some people noticed this and complained, but the FCC seems to ignore it, and most hams seem to be happy to have D-Star. French regulators did notice and made D-Star radio illegal in French amateur bands (see D-Star on Wikipedia).

Then there is Winlink (basically, super ham email). I read somewhere that the initial promise was to allow "secure" communication of the amataur emcomm service so that "sensitive information" would not be leaked to the public (and the media, such as business TV news). It is strongly recommended not to transmit some possible emergency information through "clear channels" because it may disturb the public, such as "East Bumtucket Hospital needs 95 body bags". This is basically the purpose of Winlink (and some previously undocumented digital ham communication formats). In some areas of amateur radio, there seems to be a specific encryption definition that I have never heard of before. If INTENT is to prevent people other than the receiver from decoding the message, then the format is just encryption, but in this case the intention is something else Things, but I don’t know what other things are.

Despite this problem, I found that amateur radio is another good area for technological exploration. For the technicians, the "bad" part is that almost all amateurs in any club are not technicians, or at least join the club for social, non-technical reasons. Many club displays are "technical", but usually about making and using antennas, antenna cables, propagation, batteries, and "going to the station" (a rig installed in a box for carrying in an emergency), a new digital model Demonstrations such as FT4 and FT8, but have nothing to do with the design of the radio. I went to college to study electrical engineering and joined ARRL a few years ago mainly to get a QEX (very technical radio design) subscription, because RF is an unfinished challenge in my career. If you want to play transmit and receive RF, there are some very limited and very low power frequency bands, you don’t need a license, otherwise you need an amateur license, maybe an additional license to access all frequency bands. Fortunately, It is not difficult for a technician to learn the required materials (partly technical and partly about regulations), especially free information online, and pass all three tests.

If people want magic again, try psychedelic mushrooms, clown costumes, ventriloquist dummies, mysterious commands or join a magic circle club. But even these things are now the old world. Only the space race can inspire the sense of unknown waiting to inspire the next generation. At the very least, this will require homework and a love of new knowledge. Sex always has eternal pleasure, but the eldest person in the tribe does not need such a high-energy pursuit. Something is beckoning our children's thoughts, all we can do is wait and see!

The author seems to be using this article to promote someone's Yaesu Fusion Reflector, and it is another article on why amateur radio did something wrong, I don't think it helps much.

Outside of North America, they seldom pay attention to this hobby, just for emergency communication and preparation, but at the same time I am confused about the comments promoting SDR. This hobby is full of it, and there are already many from cheap dongle, commercial SDR.​​​ To the small group that builds the radio.

Although I agree with most people, even in the UK, many clubs are terrible and sometimes crowded with elderly people. It seems strange to just leave someone’s age aside, that person can still build equipment over 80. While hobbies are already elitist issues (not real radio), you will get ham, they bully others (always accepting it) have many benefits, hobbies are growing, the number of hams taking exams in the UK is from what I see According to the situation, people are broadcasting live, not just 59 and byes, but also technical chat.

It's great to see Hackaday share some positive aspects about this hobby.

Obviously, for me as an amateur radio enthusiast, we have relationships with manufacturers and hackers. The nature of our hobby is the same as the hobby of creating a hacker and maker community. We are made of the same wood. This is why I started the "HAM-3D Project". Its main goal is to gather communities of 3D printing, manufacturers, hackers, radio enthusiasts, and other radio enthusiasts. This project has just started, and I hope it can successfully bring these communities working together. You can find all useful information about the HAM-3D project here: https://www.leradioscope.fr/blog/558-presentation-officielle-du-projet-ham-3d

I have been a ham for nearly 50 years, and I guarantee that these comments are exactly the same as the comments I heard 40 years ago... The two types of people on ham radio and the types of topics in them are diverse. You don't have to like DX or 2 meters, you may be interested in more digital aspects, or for that matter, you may like to build a radio with tubes.

Personally, I participated in several hacking conferences and worked for a computer company with a fruity logo. I like to do low-power continuous wave, and do it from an unfamiliar location I have to hike to. You may not like high-speed continuous wave or hiking, and we may never meet, but instead of treating amateur radio as the end point, consider it as a means to an end. Once you get permission, you may be taken more seriously-people know that you persevered and at least learned the basics that allowed you to get your current permission.

Treat amateur radio licenses as college diplomas. You may never need to learn Latin conjugation or calculus again in your life, but this diploma proves that you are an adult who can persevere and take time to learn something. Personally, I am always happy to hire people with an amateur radio license because I can rely on them to have at least a basic understanding of electronics, so I know they can stick to it and learn new things.

I totally agree with your analysis Jeff

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