If you have a noisy location just give up ham radio? Well that will
sure kill it off pretty quick. Wow!
W0MU
On 6/2/2026 10:29 AM, uy0zg via Topband wrote:
Jim
You're right about amateur radio in general. But in this case, we're
talking about achievements in DX work.
And if you don’t have the opportunity to have a quiet place and
receiving antennas, then the answer is simple - do something else.
Turning the dxing process into a void using robots and remote websdr
is a great sin.
It used to be possible to make good connections from the city. My
first NA (100 watts and LW)
https://www.topband.in.ua/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/k1mem_qsl.jpg
My station is currently located thirty kilometers outside the city. I
have the opportunity to listen to interesting stations from all
continents. Of course, land here is very inexpensive... Especially
now. This is not California...
---
Nick, UY0ZG
http://www.topband.in.ua
Jim Brown via Topband писал(а) 2026-06-02 10:09:
I'm with you on this Mike, and always have been of this opinion.
Ham radio is about FAR, FAR more than CW. I've been primarily a CW op
for 70 years, it's the mode I enjoy most. I'm primarily a contester.
DXing is too boring for me.
Ham radio is about station building, understanding propagation,
learning new technologies, sharing what we know with others.
What the bitching OTs here have forgotten (or don't know) is that
noise levels around the world, on both sides of the QSO, have risen
drastically. When I moved to NorCal from Chicago in 2006, neighbor
K6XX told me that EU on 160 was 6-8 nights a year. In the first half
dozen years, I worked about 20 EU countries. I've had a 100 ft Tee
vertical with a LOT of radials and full wavelength Beverages NE, SE,
NW, and SW since 2007.
I own 8 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and when I moved here, it
was pretty quiet. No more. The NE and NW Beverages point to very
strong noise sources. In the last 8-10 seasons, I've heard 9 CW
signals from EU, and two of those stations heard me. During the last
solar minima, I used JT65 first, then FT8, to add another 30.
Those OTs who pat themselves on the back for doing it the hard way
fail to realize that it was 20 dB easier to do it on CW back then!
Yes, THAT'S how much noise levels have increased over 20 years! And
some of those I hear doing the patting talk about how quiet it is at
their QTH.
Sure, I enjoyed CW contesting on 6M when there were guys to work. The
last CW QSO I made was with a VE6 in a rare grid, and it took me 4
years and 4 envelopes with green stamps to get a card!
There's another issue here. 99% of hams can't afford to live in a
quiet location. Most of us were stuck in jobs that meant we had to
live in cities and burbs on postage stamp lots with lots of neighbors
generating noise. Comparing those of us lucky to have a nice antenna
farm and able to hear remind me of the guy who starts out life and
third base and sees his achievements as home runs.
I have tremendous respect for what W7RH has done to build and
maintain that remote station in the desert. I made a point of telling
him so when we met years ago, probably at Visalia. THAT'S an example
of SERIOUS ham radio.
So is the station that K6XX built 5 miles up the road from me, with
ten towers that he built and rigged himself, doing all the climbing,
on land that he cleared himself with VERY nasty vegetation, built a
custom control system for a 5-seat Multi. And Bob just finished doing
the whole thing again after losing everything in a massive wildfire
that took nearly a thousand homes. It stopped just across the road
from me.
BTW -- from my larger than average Chicago lot, I wasn't able to make
a single 160M QSO outside of NA, and I think I might have worked a
couple of guys in W6. I loaded a Tee vertical there, against a pretty
good counterpoise, with a Ten Tec Titan.
73, Jim K9YC
On 6/1/2026 5:08 PM, Mike Fatchett W0MU wrote:
How would you know how much skill is required if you don't work the
mode. There is plenty of skill involved. You just don't turn on
the rig and work like it was nothing. The FT bashing is kinda like
the hate for Trump. Tons of people use it and enjoy it and it has
allowed many to work dx or even work ham radio when they could not
before. Can we please stop the bashing? It does not help the hobby
and FT modes arguably might actually save the hobby.
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