Firekite
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Compiling the equipment to make a complex version of Zello is infinitely more expensive than free.Expensive? If you consider $75 "expensive" then you are in the wrong hobby.
Is Ham Radio Doomed?
- Thread starter bill4long
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What is your fixation on "Zello" about? What I've been speaking of has absolutely ZERO to do with any such application.
A "hotspot" is a tiny, self-contained transceiver that only requires a connection to the internet. The lowest cost for such a device is around $75 or less depending on one's skill level. The "hotspot" is powered by any small "computer" such as a pi-zero loaded with pre-compiled software.
Connection to the internet may be direct via a CAT5 cable to a router, or a WiFi connection via a wireless modem or a tethered cellphone.
In the final analysis it is not all that different that any QSO via a repeater; just that this repeater has worldwide coverage!
iMONITOR
Silent Key
I think Ham radio would have been really fun and interesting back when some of the gear was home made, sometimes crude, military surplus with large control panels, meters and knobs and operators really understood the entire process!
Today every is downsized, high-tech, complicated and it's all about how many knobs, buttons and switches it has, oh and don't forget you have to have a big colorful cluttered graphics display! You need a manual that's at least 600+ pages, and computer software is almost a must!
A few random examples:
Today every is downsized, high-tech, complicated and it's all about how many knobs, buttons and switches it has, oh and don't forget you have to have a big colorful cluttered graphics display! You need a manual that's at least 600+ pages, and computer software is almost a must!
A few random examples:
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Hmmmm- this gets interesting- the divide between Ham and the Zello talking.
This afternoon I just talked to my father on the US east coast- talking to him over a DMR connected repeater. I called his node on my iPhone, (I am out in the middle of Wyoming on a vacation)- and I was connected to his handheld on 440...
Kind'a niffty- and hardly anything out of the ordinary. What was thought provoking was a station who then called me; he was interested in this ability to talk to Wyoming (he's a new ham collecting states.)
Could I confirm Wyoming for him ?
I told him it was fine with me, but didn't know how it would pan out if he sought credit for the contact. (I'd just snail-mail him a QSL card with few details and let the blanks fill in themselves.)
emptor caveat
Shortly after, the link by radio broke, so I just called my father back on the Verizon Band and complete our 'Que-zho.'
No judgement issues here, just a little aside.
Lauri
This afternoon I just talked to my father on the US east coast- talking to him over a DMR connected repeater. I called his node on my iPhone, (I am out in the middle of Wyoming on a vacation)- and I was connected to his handheld on 440...
Kind'a niffty- and hardly anything out of the ordinary. What was thought provoking was a station who then called me; he was interested in this ability to talk to Wyoming (he's a new ham collecting states.)
Could I confirm Wyoming for him ?
I told him it was fine with me, but didn't know how it would pan out if he sought credit for the contact. (I'd just snail-mail him a QSL card with few details and let the blanks fill in themselves.)
emptor caveat
Shortly after, the link by radio broke, so I just called my father back on the Verizon Band and complete our 'Que-zho.'
No judgement issues here, just a little aside.
Lauri
k6cpo
Member
The demise of ham radio is a topic that has been debated ad nauseum here and other forums. It's been beaten to death and beaten to death and beaten to death (as this thread proves.) Isn't it about time this thread be closed and we leave the horse to die in peace?
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I'm sure the argument started as soon as someone moved beyond spark gap transmitters. "If you ain't splattering across several hundreds of kilocycles, you ain't really a ham!"
-GIX-
You just shot yourself in the foot with that last statement. Those hot-spots do use the internet, which is basically the same as 'Zello'. There's no great harm in using the internet for a 'link', but don't confuse that with 'radio', it isn't. Which I think is the basis for that argument.
You just shot yourself in the foot with that last statement. Those hot-spots do use the internet, which is basically the same as 'Zello'. There's no great harm in using the internet for a 'link', but don't confuse that with 'radio', it isn't. Which I think is the basis for that argument.
Firekite
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Yeah, just like Zello. When you reduce your transceiver to just a mic for an internet chat, you get to take advantage of all that it offers. Just don’t confuse it with radio any more than when I use my wireless headset to talk to customers in a GoToMeeting session. Technically it is wireless, sure, but it’s not ham radio. When I Skype or FaceTime someone, technically radio waves are involved, but it’s a license-free and far simpler and cheaper way to accomplish the same internet chat result. Great technology, just don’t confuse it with amateur radio.In the final analysis it is not all that different that any QSO via a repeater; just that this repeater has worldwide coverage!
I disagree. Considering that you have to have an amateur radio license and use a ham radio to transmit and receive on a ham band in order to talk to other amateur radio operators, using a hotspot sounds like just another area of the broad spectrum that makes up amateur radio. Zellio on the other hand does not require an amateur radio license, does not involve a ham radio and does not involve transmitting on any ham bands.
They sound very different to me.
I'm beginning to think the powers-that-be should add the eminent demise of ham radio to the sticky at the top of each thread dealing with encryption and streaming. 250+ posts of speculation, uneducated guesses and advising everyone of one's own knowledge of radio haven't accomplished anything and it's not likely that it will. Otherwise, we'll go through this again in a year or so.
Okay. You are entitled to your opinion, just as I am. Having been licensed since 1957 I am pretty sure I do understand the amateur hobby well enough to know what's "ham" and what's "not ham..."
Suppose I were to use 20m SSB to connect with a remote transceiver that cross-linked to a DMR radio, which in turn transmitted to a 'hotspot' linked to the internet, and contacted an amateur operator in Italy via his local repeater with his DMR HT, would that not count as "ham?"
This begs the question: Why would you want to?Suppose I were to use 20m SSB to connect with a remote transceiver that cross-linked to a DMR radio, which in turn transmitted to a 'hotspot' linked to the internet, and contacted an amateur operator in Italy via his local repeater with his DMR HT, would that not count as "ham?"
I believe it used to be known as "experimentation..." Can it be done? Yes it can, although there may be no practical reason for it, it's great fun for me.
Just as there are some hams experimenting with microwave or IP linked mesh networks. I suppose they aren't really considered "hams" either by some people's definition.
I don't think so. What is the path for the QSO?
Ham HT -> local ham repeater -> internet -> remote ham repeater -> remote ham HT
How does the intermediate transmission path magically collapse the entire chain to "not ham radio?"
Ham radio is the means that is used as the entry point, and exit point of an internet communications system. It's like using the telephone or a cable system to do the same thing, but that doesn't mean that a telephone or the cable system is ham radio. Only that ham radio is another way of entering an internet communications system. Do you see the distinction?
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