If we’re waiting for even 3% of youth to join us just because we think Ham Radio is “fun,” we’re wasting our remaining days on a dying hobby. If we want what we do to be meaningful enough for somebody to carry it forward, it must have relevancy.
From: BVARC [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jonathan Guthrie via BVARC Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2014 15:44 To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Subject: Re: [BVARC] Youth in Amateur Radio 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. _______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org -- Jonathan Guthrie KA8KPN
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