20 years ago, the hot thing in certain amateur (please, not "amature")
radio circles was the Microchip PIC processor and everybody was doing
stuff with BASIC stamps. The Arduino is basically a ripoff of the BASIC
stamp based upon the AVR microprocessor rather than the PIC and with
certain fairly logical enhancements. Now, I happen to like the AVR part
better than the PIC, but you can't say hams are behind the times because
they don't use Arduino when we were doing that sort of thing 15 years
before anyone had ever thought of the Arduino.
The KX3 is not considered an SDR radio precisely because it doesn't
require an external computer. It might use DSP in it's design, but
that's been pretty common, in top-end rigs at least, for a long time so
it's not something to expect, it's a historical fact.
I spent quite a long time with the FCC rules a couple of months ago to
prove that HF Digital Voice is already permitted by the rules, and they
are a marvel of clarity and brevity when compared to the ITU rules that
define the emission types.
I think that trying to market amateur radio to young gadget freaks and
people who are interested in the current state of the art
technology-wise is a huge mistake because they're never going to be
impressed with what we have to offer them. Even if we had high-speed
data transmissions everywhere, the people who might want to do that are
already doing it without having to take a test to get a license and
without having to spend hundreds of dollars on specialized gear. I
think it's time that the amateur radio community recognized that it is
not primarily of interest to the technically-oriented, but is far more
interesting to the socially-oriented.
It's not amateur data communications or amateur computer programming or
amateur electronics, it's amateur radio, and we do it because we think
it's fun.
On 10/8/2014 6:11 PM, Bryce Lindsay via BVARC wrote:
I keep trying to reply, but things keep getting in the way.
Ok, stagnant is a bit harsh of a word. But the wheels of progress can
be a bit slow to adopt new technologies it seems. Slow in comparison
to other hobbies that can benefit from this same new technology.
Arduinos, Raspberry Pi's have been out for a few years now, yet it
feels they only really started getting traction in the amature radio
community recently.
I feel that SDR will be playing a BIG part in the future of Amature
radio, their are some SDR devices out there that some of the maker
community are just now getting their hands on. But the gulf between
the maker community and the "Traditional" amature radio community
seems to be extremely vast.
There are radio's like the KX3, a SDR radio, but you don't need a PC
to use it. I expect more manufacturers for follow this model.
As for the slow digital modes, and the 300baud artificial speed limit,
yes it's things like that that seem to hold back progress. Also
spend any length of time with the current FCC rules and regulations
about type, class, and transmissions and you will want to gouge your
eyes out.
one example of a digital mode that was killed from experimenting with
here in the states was ROS. a multi QSO digital chat mode. Because
the creator used the term "spread spectrum" in describing his new
mode, this mode was killed even before it got the chance to be used in
the states. Even though from what my reading has revealed it uses no
more bandwidth of a voice USB signal, and multiple QSO's all
interacting with each other like an IRC chat room, using something
like this, would be right up a younger persons alley.
As a new operator, i have found a few places on the net that are more
in touch with what i am wanting to get from this hobby. One place
that i check on on a regular basis,
http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio
If you're looking for your younger hams, thats the place to look.
Also I truly feel that the current US license structure is doing more
harm than good to new hams. New hams are almost exclusively regulated
to UHF/VHF. A new ham these days has no morse skills, so saying that
they have access to the HF stuff is a little bit of a misnomer.
Instead of limiting new hams to CW on the HF stuff, limit their
bandwidth, so they could at least use digital modes. And their
computer skills that most of them know how to use already.
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Jonathan Guthrie KA8KPN
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