Is Ham Radio Doomed?

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

If anything will doom ham radio it's the gatekeepers who declare what is and isn't "real ham radio."
K7MFC

Last time I looked Cerberus is not at these gates, tho there are plenty of his deputy hounds guarding slivers of precious Hamdom.


For the sake of discussion (argument?)- if VoIP Wifi enabled ham chat is 'Ham Radio"-...... I guess becuz while on an iPhone I can talk radio jargon and throw in a few Q signals- maybe laugh with a 'Hi Hi' .... then can not this be 'Ham Radio' when doing the same over a CB, or Family Radio (FRS)?
I can be a ham without that pesky license !

Heck, lets go even further and call it 'Ham' with two tin cans and a string stretched between them --


"you're 59 here Old Man, ... QTH is grid square XX99, just behind yonder rose bush.."


I don't want to, however I will concede that the hobby is truly Doomed when all standards that constituted it for generations have devolve into the Loosey-Goosey miasma that passes for societal standards these days.
But like I said before, I am fine with the technology that enables Zello chat... but recognize it for that- it isn't Ham Radio.

Meanwhile, the next ARRL VHF contest I plan to enlist a friend, -- we'll take some laser pointers and drive to the 4 Corners (of AZ, UT, NM, CO) and work four grid squares AND four states- all on laser CW-- using that wild 650 nm band--

We should get certificates for that**.
Somewhere we need standards

Lauri



______________________________________________________________________________________



**easy Cowpokes, I am being sarcastic

.

 

[N8IAA]

This thread is doomed. Has been since the first post.
But, we can all agree to disagree.

No sarcasm, just irony.

 

[K7MFC]

I don't want to, however I will concede that the hobby is truly Doomed when all standards that constituted it for generations have devolve into the Loosey-Goosey miasma that passes for societal standards these days.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? In what specific ways has ham radio devolved so far it could be described as a "miasma"?

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

".....Can you elaborate on this a bit? In what specific ways has ham radio devolved so far it could be described as a "miasma.............."?

I wasn't referring to ham radio specifically but Society in general. Need I expound on the coarsening of western society ?... I hope not, for don't look to me to venture down that black hole.

Mine was a comment in general- tho I don't think one has to look to closely to see how it effects this hobby as well.
Changing standards are not bad.... just be prepared for the criticism when you gore someone's ox.

.

 

[Firekite]

I don't think one has to look to closely to see how it effects this hobby as well.

I let a mildly crude word slip from my lips last night and felt a pant of instant embarrassment and regret.

 

[AB4BF]

In my humble opinion, I think that we here have had and are having an absolutely civil dialogue. There are some that seem to think that if a radio doesn't have tubes in it, its not a ham radio and there are others that think that digital signals make ham radio. We as a great and wonderful hobby sanctioned by the U.S. government (who else's hobby can claim that?) that can communicate with can and string to very small digital integrated large scale circuits. There are people here that can and do, do it all and some that still need an elmer for the technician license. But, I digress...

All of us have went through the licensing for amateur radio; some having to take Morse and the newby's not having to. Thats OK. We both learned. Instead of complaining about the new licensees not having to know Morse, offer to teach it. Maybe the new ones will teach you FT8 or DMR. In our club, we have all three types of ham's, old hams set in their ways, new hams just getting into the hobby and elmers who not only teach older hams new ways but put their money where their mouth is and sponsor a middle school and a high school amateur radio club. Simply Amazing!!

I sometimes feel a little sad for the guys and gals that say ham radio is doomed or dead or taken over by certain interests or "they're letting bigfoot into our hobby, now". I am a VE and I have given technician exams verbally to a disabled American vet. When you think you are going to start moaning and groaning about what ham radio is going to become, remember that; - an American veteran who lost his eyesight in war and cannot read well enough to take a written technicians license took the time to learn the questions and took the test orally. He failed the first time, but guess what. He did not give up and he passed the second time. He couldn't see me very well if at all and if I had one tenth of the resolution and determination that he had in his face, I don't believe, with that, anyone would think that ham radio is doomed.

 

[ladn]

I can't resist:

Meanwhile, the next ARRL VHF contest I plan to enlist a friend, -- we'll take some laser pointers and drive to the 4 Corners (of AZ, UT, NM, CO) and work four grid squares AND four states- all on laser CW-- using that wild 650 nm band--

 

[Analog-Surf-N1EXA]

".....Can you elaborate on this a bit? In what specific ways has ham radio devolved so far it could be described as a "miasma.............."?

I wasn't referring to ham radio specifically but Society in general. Need I expound on the coarsening of western society ?... I hope not, for don't look to me to venture down that black hole.

Mine was a comment in general- tho I don't think one has to look to closely to see how it effects this hobby as well.
Changing standards are not bad.... just be prepared for the criticism when you gore someone's ox.

.

Lauri - That has to be the line of the week ... I'm in office full of people and we all have found your line to fit !

Do Not Gore The OX !

Peter N1EXA

 

[Firekite]

He couldn't see me very well if at all and if I had one tenth of the resolution and determination that he had in his face, I don't believe, with that, anyone would think that ham radio is doomed.

While a touching personal story, it has little bearing on the topic. I’m still new to ham radio, but I still see quiet repeaters and no responses on even common simplex frequencies, and that’s on the most popular VHF frequencies, much less getting into more restricted frequencies with oddball modes.

Before cell phones, there was no other way to communicate wirelessly with others except by radio. With today’s cell coverage you can reach out to others via all manner of means wirelessly, at home or on the go. I’m typing this right now, license-free, on my smart phone.

When I was a kid in the ‘80s, I was insanely jealous of those who had some form of walkie talkie with their friends, and I was fascinated by CB radio and the like. I had no idea that ham radio existed, but my dad was a pilot and used radios to communicate with ground control stations and other aircraft in the area, and it was really cool stuff, to me.

Today, if I were a kid, I doubt I would care as much. Cell phones—smart phones even—are ubiquitous, and they have the ability to communicate with their friends and family and engage in social media and all the other stuff seamlessly and wirelessly...and cheaply. Radios are still cool for some things, but bubble pack FRS/GMRS radios are cheap and easy.

Back when I built Jeeps and would go rock crawling, off-roaders would often run a CB radio in their rig, but even then it wasn’t universal (not everyone had them), and few of us really had any idea what we were doing. It was mostly for emergencies when in the boonies with poor cell coverage. And many of those areas are covered better and better every year.

As a hunter I love to sit in a deer blind and text with others. I guess in theory I could do that with radio in a complex, cumbersome, and expensive way, but why? I can’t really talk when I’m trying to stay quiet to keep from scaring off my quarry, and unless cell coverage is nil, SMS messages can make it though fine.

I guess what I’m saying is that while there may well be a number of individuals dedicated to keeping the tradition alive, and there may be stories of people scarred by war trying to join those ranks, it’s mostly a question of how many people, critical mass. There are so many quick, easy, and cheap wireless communication options these days, and those options are continually expanding and getting ever cheaper, that the list of reasons someone might want to get into ham radio—or stay in ham radio for that matter—is getting shorter and shorter.

If obtaining General+ for HF DXing doesn’t inherently appeal to you, then really, what’s going to propel you into ham radio at all? Weirdos like me that are simply fascinated by the idea of radio communications in general probably aren’t numerous enough to keep it from slowly dwindling.

PS Other than a latent interest in radio in general, rekindled due to scanner use, for me one of the only additional motivators is being able to lend a helping hand in cases of natural disasters so that I can hopefully be part of a more coordinated effort from my truck as a mobile station. We’ll see how that works out.

 

[W5lz]

I think this hobby isn't "Doomed" or even close to it. I think this hobby is "Privileged" to change to 'fit' things as they are. Those "Good Old Days" were a PITA if you're honest about it. Later, when you can look back on them you might have some nostalgic moments. But to be honest (again), would you really change back to doing things that way, without the conveniences of how things are done now? I wouldn't. They may be "good old days" now, but not back then.

 

[Eugene]

I don't think it could have been put any more succinctly than AB4BF. Well said my friend. PS: Lauri...love your humor.

Eugene KG4AVE

 

[bharvey2]

Weirdos like me that are simply fascinated by the idea of radio communications in general.......

Hey, that's where I fit in.

To be honest, there are probably those that would state that Lauri's example of using lasers to conduct CW transmissions "doesn't count" as ham radio. But, it sounds cool and I'd be the first to sign up. I think that stepping outside the box and applying different technologies and applications is what's going to keep the hobby moving forward.

 

[Spankymedic7]

For the record, I have no immediate plans to jump off of a bridge.

Is ham radio doomed? No, I don't think so. It may shrink and some aspects of amateur radio may not look like they do today, but I think it will always be here.

For instance, I think hot spots are killing interest in digital voice repeaters. Why be tied to a fixed service that is run by someone else when you can run your own connection to the outside world (as long as you have Internet)?

For that matter, I think repeaters are doomed. I think it will be more and more difficult to get access to high profile repeater sites at the prices amateur radio operators are willing to pay (i.e. for free). "Garage" repeaters will proliferate which may put pressure on repeater coordinators to allow close spacing of repeaters. These garage repeaters, if they stay analog, will also have to connect to other repeaters which takes us back to hot spots or AllStar/Echolink/IRLP.

I think traffic nets are doomed. The older hams who are into traffic nets will slowly die off and so will their nets. I'm not sure traffic nets serve any real purpose any more and the "traffic" I hear on them seems to be mostly self-generated.

I think SSB DXing and contesting and ragchewing is doomed. As more and more people move into areas where they can't put up very good antennas, they will find it more and more difficult to communicate using SSB and 100 watts. Weak signal sound card digital modes, like FT8 will proliferate. Note that this would be a prime opportunity for CW to increase in prominence, but it won't because folks will go for the computer-based modes. As a result, CW DXing and contesting and ragchewing is also doomed.

I think ARES/RACES/SATERN/Skywarn are doomed. The served agencies will have less and less use for amateur radio as they become more and more reliant on infrastructure-based communications systems and social media.

The prepper aspect of amateur radio will flourish. As folks figure out that their cell phones and Internet access could disappear in a heartbeat, they will take greater interest in amateur radio. Sadly, without some training and familiarity in how to use their radios, these preppers will find that they still can't communicate. Note, this is a prime opportunity for the ARRL and every local amateur radio club to start addressing this aspect of amateur radio. These organizations need to start catering to the prepper crowd. I take the recent QST article about stockpiling water and food as a positive sign that maybe one person at the ARRL gets it.

So, chew on those topics for a while.

Well, that just took the wind out of my sail,. Depressing...I guess time will tell.

 

[W5lz]

Keep in mind that the amateur bands are a limited resource, there's only so many of them, and only so many frequencies that can be used on them at any particular time. Even so, how many times have you heard stations crawling up the 'skirts' of a conversation not even 1 Khz away at times? The typical excuses are that 'we' were here first, I don't/didn't hear anyone, we've used this freq for thousands of years (not as great of an exaggeration as you might think), and who knows what else. Some of them are -possibly- true, more of them are out right lies, and the rest are just so silly I wonder why I/anyone would be expected to even sort of believe them??
So tell me, where the @#$$ would you put a large surge of new hams? One solution would be to 'freeze' the number of hams at the number there are now. And before anyone starts, NO I don't advocate that at all. Another solution would be to "Nail" the worst offenders. I seriously doubt if that'll happen in my life time. So, what can be done about it? That's an honest question.

 

[VK3RX]

To be honest, there are probably those that would state that Lauri's example of using lasers to conduct CW transmissions "doesn't count" as ham radio. But, it sounds cool and I'd be the first to sign up. I think that stepping outside the box and applying different technologies and applications is what's going to keep the hobby moving forward.

There are folk playing around on 475 TerraHertz down this way.

It isn't using an amateur band, but it has certainly generated some interest, inside and outside the hobby

Australian Optical Communications Record Broken in Tasmania
VK7 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS EXPERIMENTATION

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

475 THz -- that's a neat link Damien

Its amazing what is possible once we decide to step outside the envelope.

A few years ago we experimented on 5 nm's - that's in the Extrahertz's..... its ionizing radiation.
The receivers were exotic detectors- and the ranges, all things consider'd- were remarkable.

This was not ham radio, but it could have been. I think anything above 300 GHz is the open frontier.
Yee- Haw !

Lauri

 

[KK2DOG]

As long as I can still tap-out my name in CW on the office Swingline stapler, I'm good to go.

 

[bharvey2]

There are folk playing around on 475 TerraHertz down this way.

It isn't using an amateur band, but it has certainly generated some interest, inside and outside the hobby

Australian Optical Communications Record Broken in Tasmania
VK7 OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS EXPERIMENTATION

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! I've mulled the concept over in my head for a long time but figured refraction would put a serious hurt on the effectiveness of long range operation. Apparently cloud bounce and "gum tree" bounce suggest otherwise. Now this gets me thinking..... On a Friday afternoon of all times.

 

[bharvey2]

Is that a straight key Swingline or an Iambic?

 

[N4GIX]

It eliminates entirely the concept of radio in the first place. It’s just Zello.

Part of the concept of amateur radio is to keep up some level of knowledge of how radio concepts even work in the first place behind a relatively small handful of career pros and military personnel. HF, VHF, UHF, whatever, just using a chat app on your phone kind of defeats the purpose.

No one mentioned "Zello" or any "chat app on your phone". A "hotspot" is a simplex repeater that passes a digital format such as DMR, P25, System Fusion, NXDN or D-Star onto the internet via a WiFi modem from one's VHF or UHF transceiver. It is ham radio at either end of the contact.

Expensive? If you consider $75 "expensive" then you are in the wrong hobby.

I just got home from our monthly ham club BoD and General Membership meeting. Thirty-three members came tonight out of our current fifty-nine members. When I was elected to by VP three years ago we were down to eleven members. Between the President and myself along with a couple of the board members, we've been growing the club back up to strength.

Our newest member is also our youngest member. He received his Tech license two weeks ago. Tomorrow is his 9th birthday! His father has been an Extra for about twelve years.

The club sponsored a booth at a major scouting event and gained the interest of six boys who will be attending six weeks of classes studying for the Tech license. Next year I am hoping to sponsor a "Ham Club" at the Lake County High School. One of our club members will be a finishing his Junior year and is on a recruiting drive...

We aren't "dying" here in NW Indiana!