Digital Lazy Mans Ham Radio

Patrick

No, but allows for operational features such as logging with auto up loads to cloud logging....

Michael N3LI

My own take on the never ending "Ham Radio is dying" lament made by some is that for some people, it is dying. A couple guys I know look at their portion of the hobby, and it is ragchewing nets of people that are very similar to them. Older, and lamenting their younger days passing - usually in all aspects of life. So yes - their ranks go down over time. Not that many younger hams are that interested - I tried some of their nets, and a lot of it is the same people, talking about the same things, day after day. Wasn't for me, but they were enjoying it, so its all good.

Ham radio is growing as far as I can tell. It isn't our father's Ham radio, where so many were licensed before they were even teenagers. The demographics have changed, and many become Hams after their children are out of the house, and they can afford to buy some good radios. 

So heck yeah. I find Ham radio to be changing, but quite healthy.  And be a person a prepper, a rag chewer, a contester or an experimenter like myself, there's a lot of room in this big tent.

K3SF

Bill -VA3WTB

FT8 is not for me either but after working it for a bit I can understand the challenge in it.
From here in Ontario Canada, I can log thousands of US stations, but why would I want that? Nothing to it. Then one day I thought, lets just look for other countries to work, any country. Then things got a lot harder and contacts took longer. I was trying to work different zones, not easy.

One day I connected to a zone by chasing them for hours. We finally connected but I could not close them because I didn't have power to do so, 100W.
After trying for some time I turned my amp on and worked at 500W. That was what I needed to close the deal and log them. So I do understand the challenge. But for most enjoyment, talking to people is what I like most.

Ken - NM9P

Wait, Howard, YOU once used CW? I thought you threw your key into the ocean? Hi hi!

Ken - NM9P

Must read yer post wit der Hollywood pirate accent, matey. Arrrr.

KY6LA_Howard

Yes I did have to once to get the Extra but then **** it to a lead brick from a nuclear pile and dumped ii into Lake Ontario. Probably still toxic.

Dave - W6OVP

N9VC

Three? I count eight.

KL4QG

Found it average age ham operator the CB boom craze -1974=37 ,1999=47 ,2009 =51. ,2019=61
Wow so the younger folks are not becoming new Hams -Most Be Video gaming and Twitter and Facebook-Ham Radio loosing ground Dam it-

Mike W9OJ

Ham radio is not as exciting when every kid has a smartphone.

KL4QG

That my point when kids give up bikes and outdoor playing and give up working with their minds and hands -welcome Smart phones and loss respect for human inter-reaction -See now what happing We the parents lost our grip on our own kids

Ken - NM9P

The interpretation of those figures may be skewed by the following facts. 1) People tend to be healthier for longer periods of time, and are more active for a longer period of time. 2) People tend to live longer than they did back in 1974. 3) Many of the older hams are retired baby boomers, and the population is skewed that direction just like it is in every other demographic study. So the average age of hams is not necessarily a sign of a dying hobby. Just a more experienced one. In 1974, when I received my ham license, I was probably the only ham in my high school, which numbered about 1150. There were LOTS of kids involved in CB during the CB craze. I gave some demonstrations in class and helped start a ham radio club and soon the Amateur ranks grew to 5-10 and more by the time I graduated. Amateur Radio grows in direct proportion to the number of hams in a local community that make it (and their club meetings) interesting to young people. If the old fogies in the local club don’t do anything but sit around and gripe about how the snot-nosed kids are ruining the hobby, the snot-kids will never catch the radio bug.

tmcdonough

I feel like perhaps I have been negligent. I too was first licensed in 1977 and I don't think I've ever complained that people who become hams today didn't have to go to an FCC Field Office to take a test other than Novice and had to fill in circuit diagrams with the missing components.

People like different things and the great thing about Amateur Radio is there is so much to choose from. On any given day I can grab my straight key and work CW, use the microphone to communicate with a voice mode, hook up my computer and do one of many dozens of digital modes, use a satellite, do microwave stuff, or even just use FM to yack on the local repeater while we decide where we're going to met for lunch.

Tim N9PUZ

Steve K9ZW

The lamentations about the every changing amateur radio world have been cyclical from the start of our hobby. My buddy George W9EVT (check hi out on QRZ - he has been licensed 75 years) run everything from pre-WWII gear, classic Collins gear, the state of the art conventional transceivers and a Flex-6300 - often in the same day! He’s found a personal sweet spot in SSB but has dabbled in most modes. He’s been working at remot8ng one his Icoms and of course his Flex (which replaced a 5000a). Like a huge candy store take what you want but never dismiss the other candies, as they may be someone else’s favorites! I am thrilled at how a Flex-6000 fits for so many options. And yes I have other transceivers. But usually you will find me on a Flex. The other Flex feature is its forward open architecture meaning that I personally have only scratch the surface with what it can do. 73 Steve K9ZW Blog://k9zw.wordpress.com

Eric-K0ELB

I'm 43, I'll be 44 in November this year.

Bob- W5TX

Ken/Howard Gess I’m the only one to comment so far having been active in the AM/SSB wars (licensed in ‘51) when folks said those who sounded like ducks talking we’re screwing up the bands. Except for those who are avid AM fans, the SSBers won converts because the technology was superior. Speed ahead till today and similar things are happening. FT8, remote operation via the internet, computer analysis of circuits, antenna design via computer optimization and much more. We think of vhf/uhf hardware advances, repeaters, microwave operation, moon bounce and the list goes on. Much of what is commonplace today did not exist in 1951 and for years thereafter. Of course we had digital operation from the beginning in ham radio - CW but the computer was between our ears. The hobby is so diverse there is almost some interesting facet for anyone if they are introduced to it. So, yeah, FT8 is a bit like watching grass grow but working the world on 100W or lots less is amazing. Many of the things mentioned above are no less amazing depending on your interest or experience. If you like SSB, so be it but if the bands are so lousy or the local QRN is so bad you can’t hear other stations, it’s not FT8’s fault but rather the hand Mother Nature has dealt us. If the bands were like they were in the mid 50’s (great) there would be no complaining about lack of other mode activity. I think many hams have decided that if Mother Nature has given us lemons, perhaps lemonade is the answer. Thus the popularity of FT8/PSK etc. At any rate since FT8 only consumes 1 SSB channel of bandwidth for many concurrent signals and you can’t hear many of them since they are below the noise floor (but still communicating) they can’t be too much of a nuisance to the other modes . Joe Taylor W1JT of WSJT-x fame studied the lighthouses of the universe (pulsars) and won the Nobel Prize for that work. Perhaps his and others future modes will enable hams to communicate across the solar system - hmmm I wonder. Gotta go hear a station on asteroid hx343 calling on ST8 mode on 47GHz. Need him for WANA (worked all nearby asteroids) 73 Bob Hicks WN5TKB/W5TKB/W5TX

Neal Pollack, N6YFM

G4NRT

KL4QG

Great points of views Dam I going RTTY now and Decoding CW and sending CW now via my Flex 6400B and computer Loving my Flex 6400B I’m going deaf in 3 years so I need look pass SSB

Pat N6PAT

Ken - NM9P

Joe Conover   ...  Very sorry to learn of your hearing loss.  
Necessity breeds many innovations in Amateur Radio, and life in general.
Whether it is hearing loss, or rotten band conditions from no sunspots, digital modes are here to stay, but they will change shape many times as hams innovate in response to internal and external stimuli.

Best of luck to you.  

BTW, as one who is only a few years away from needing a hearing aid, (my wife says I already do) I really appreciate the Flex's RX EQ!  it is invaluable at times when I am on SSB.

James Whiteway

KL4QG

RadioSport Headset Mic a Gods blessing to me it’s only Headset that works great with my powerful behind Ear hearing Aids -Sounds very natural and God Bless Flex they have a volume adjustment in programming it turned it up Max I send a nice email to owner of RadioRadio for his foresight

Ken - NM9P

Hi Bob.
When I started studying, there were still a few skirmishes remaining from the AM vs. "Donald Duck" war.  And there was still a lot of inaccurate advice circulating about how to adjust your receiver for maximum intelligibility of SSB.  

As you know, these were born as people tried to listen to SSB with rigs using a simple BFO injection with no real product detector.  It was a real dance to decode SSB, requiring one to constantly adjust RF Gain, BFO Frequency (pitch), AGC level (if any), AF Gain, etc.  

Once product detectors were introduced, (part of the superior technology to which you referred) which didn't require the fancy dance, many users still continued to use the old advice with the new machines.  Then they wondered why their newfangled rig didn't perform well.

We have the same situation now, sometimes with SDR's and Digital modes.  The "dance" is a little different, and some users are having trouble catching up with the new steps.

Our job is to become "Dance Instructors" to a new generation of hams.

Indeed the last several sunspot cycles (the worst in many generations) require a number of different dances in the hobby!

Oh, I would love to see how my Flex would perform with a cycle like the 1958 Max!  Having been born in 1959, I missed that one!

Ken - NM9P

Norm - W7CK

spark gap is illegal.  

KL4QG

My doctor told me try these powered speakers on Flex 6400M he said there a headset jack give me extra volume JBL Control 2P 5.25" 2-Way Powered Speaker

Ken - NM9P

RadioSport headphones are the most comfortable I have ever warn.  They are almost indestructible, too, built to aviation standards.  You can't go wrong with them.

Michael N3LI

Ah hearing loss. My wife tells people we meet that if I reply to a question with something that sounds crazy, it's because my mind makes stuff up for words I don't quite hear. I just tell them to laugh, because it is funny. Might as well have fun with a problem. 

Bob G W1GLV

James, you hit it right on the nose. Nice job my friend. 73's