Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?

[@rt]

My take on it is that for the majority, it’s no more a hobby than typing this message into this message box.

Even though electronics is a life long hobby of mine, and I did make the usual crystal radio sets as a kid,
when I became interested in old valve radios I knuckled down to fully understand how a superhet, TRF, and some other radios work.
This landed me at a radio club to try to find information and also leads towards sourcing vintage components and valves.

In a club of about 50 members, a few of them have what I call a hobby, and the rest talk on radios, and talk about radios.
In addition to that, never did I observe such stupid politics, Superiority complex of supposedly advanced in the hobby
both in person and on air. Needless to say I held on to my F call for the year and did not renew it,
and continue the legitimate hobby that is electronics

[AF6LJ]

My take on it is that for the majority, it’s no more a hobby than typing this message into this message box.

Even though electronics is a life long hobby of mine, and I did make the usual crystal radio sets as a kid,
when I became interested in old valve radios I knuckled down to fully understand how a superhet, TRF, and some other radios work.
This landed me at a radio club to try to find information and also leads towards sourcing vintage components and valves.

In a club of about 50 members, a few of them have what I call a hobby, and the rest talk on radios, and talk about radios.
In addition to that, never did I observe such stupid politics, Superiority complex of supposedly advanced in the hobby
both in person and on air. Needless to say I held on to my F call for the year and did not renew it,
and continue the legitimate hobby that is electronics

You will find those kinds of politics in every hobby, I once belonged to a tropical fish club, same deal.  Getting on the radio, talking to folks, working DX, doing weak signal work on VHF and above are legitimate hobbies. Amateur radio is when you think about it; an umbrella term for a bunch of different hobbies.
I am on the board of a local radio club we have none of those politics, we did in the past and those people were shown the door, I am part of the board of directors that was formed after that stage in the life of the club. Problems like you related to are the result of a club's leadership that doesn't put its members first. Our club's leadership is there to serve the members not itself.

[VK5RC]

@rt, sorry to hear of your experience, could I suggest you try another club?
My experience has been exactly the opposite, from a long interest in electronics (hobby level) I heard morse was no longer required ( a quiet cheer from me ) and 7 years ago went throughout the F call exams at the North East radio Club in South Aust; a good bunch of really welcoming guys, some really hot technically (ex govt military tech) others really experienced Hams ops, some rag chewers and some really limited by funds. They welcomed me and helped me sit my exams esp the radio work of which I had done rel little of.
Politics does come into most fields but some areas/clubs seem to control it better.
73

[Jesset1996.5]

 Good question. Maby because of the Internet. I just recently got my license. Im going for general soon so i can use my clansmen prc -320  hf manpack, once i repair it of course!

[AF6LJ]

Good question. Maby because of the Internet. I just recently got my license. Im going for general soon so i can use my clansmen prc -320  hf manpack, once i repair it of course!

You will have fun with that, a member of our weekend rag chew group had one for quite a while.
He had all the accessories to go with it including the portable dipole antenna.

[GNU_Ninja]

Couple of active clubs  in Sheffield, UK; where I live 

http://sheffieldwireless.org/

http://www.sheffieldarc.org.uk/

In fact several of my friends have amateur radio licences. Would take the plunge myself, but never seem to find the time 

[@rt]

@rt, sorry to hear of your experience, could I suggest you try another club?

Interesting that.. the nearest other club does not have trainers to follow through licensing,
and the next nearest is too far away to commit to going unfortunately.

The final nail in the coffin for me was a Facebook group of thousands of members
bashing F calls online (more than I’ve ever heard on air).
That day I saw an actual thread dedicated to F call bashing was the day I actually quit the FB group and decided not to renew,
but before that I stated the truth that most of the advanced hams participating in the thread could not have possibly
legitimately passed the radio theory.... and they wonder why it’s in decline.
There are many legitimate areas of radio that do not require any licensing or club,
as I was already involved with before I went there.

[vk6zgo]

Had a major win---scored a Hustler 5BTV trapped vertical antenna free!

I have fairly limited space & had been trying to work out how to fit buying one into my hobby budget ---bit hard for us old retired codgers!

The Ham who had it,Kevin VK6TKR, had replaced it with another type of antenna & wanted it "to go to a good home".
Great bloke,----he pulled it apart,& helped me to get the bits into my car.

Thanks,again,Kevin!

73,VK6ZGO

[GreyWoolfe]

Good on ya!  My free antenna is a Cushcraft R-5.  And a couple of Diamond 2 meter base antennas.  I passed on a free to me Ringo Ranger to a new ham.  I am using one of the Diamonds and waiting to find a good candidate for the 2nd.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

What happened? Appliance operators. CQ Contest. Soapbox, etc. Most cannot, and wish not to, be even able to solder on a PL-259. Tests were taken only by memorizing and not learning. Just look at the state of QST, nothing but adverts filling page after page. I used to tear out those pages after obtaining the magazine at a hamfest and the resulting articles were but a few mm thick. So says this Extra Class Ham.

[AF6LJ]

What happened? Appliance operators. CQ Contest. Soapbox, etc. Most cannot, and wish not to, be even able to solder on a PL-259. Tests were taken only by memorizing and not learning. Just look at the state of QST, nothing but adverts filling page after page. I used to tear out those pages after obtaining the magazine at a hamfest and the resulting articles were but a few mm thick. So says this Extra Class Ham.

I have to admit it looks a bit grim..
As for QST devolving into an ad filled magizine for appliance operators, I would have to agree. I do however support the ARRL, and at least there is QEX which always has at lease one article that gets my attent, usually two or more...

Amateur radio is a large enough hobby there is room for the appliance operators, contesters, the two meter 10:04 crowd, and so on.  Amateur radio was dying in this country and something needed to be done to turn the hobby around.

 

[vk6zgo]

What happened? Appliance operators. CQ Contest. Soapbox, etc. Most cannot, and wish not to, be even able to solder on a PL-259. Tests were taken only by memorizing and not learning. Just look at the state of QST, nothing but adverts filling page after page. I used to tear out those pages after obtaining the magazine at a hamfest and the resulting articles were but a few mm thick. So says this Extra Class Ham.

I hope that isn't aimed at me for wanting to use a commercially made antenna.

I've always made my own,but it is (& I am), getting a bit old.
If a commercially made vertical gets me on the air on 4 more bands it will do me!

I've soldered & crimped enough connectors to last me the rest of my life,& I get my technical "jollies" from keeping secondhand rigs going.

I used to like the ads in the old QST,73,etc ----nice line drawings of useful components,kits,& stuff.
73 is gone,& QST is a pretty rare commodity in VK.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Please, don't go all Gladys Kravitz on me! I have no problem with verticals and beams, but HF dipoles and longwires, yikes!
Who isn't getting old in this hobby. Wayne was a strange bird at the end, but I too would devour 73 Mag.
On the second hand rigs, I thing a lot of kids and poor folks say how could I possibly afford a radio like that after hearing about QST and having a looksee. The ARRL should be treated with it's own Rettysnitch for devolving the hobby by not promoting building and tinkering like most of us did as kids. The fun was when it failed and we figured out finally how to fix it. Yes some of us may have been awkward nerds before the internet showed us how "normal" kids should act, but we had fun learning. There are still many LV Plate tubes that one could build a non-lethal radio out of without death resulting. And in the process kids could learn. See any articles lately on that? Nope. Let's pass this back to whoever it goes to. X#XXX back to you.

I hope that isn't aimed at me for wanting to use a commercially made antenna.

I've always made my own,but it is (& I am), getting a bit old.
If a commercially made vertical gets me on the air on 4 more bands it will do me!

I've soldered & crimped enough connectors to last me the rest of my life,& I get my technical "jollies" from keeping secondhand rigs going.

I used to like the ads in the old QST,73,etc ----nice line drawings of useful components,kits,& stuff.
73 is gone,& QST is a pretty rare commodity in VK.

[AF6LJ]

Amateur radio just reflects the rest of the electronics hobby.
When was the last time you saw someone homebrew a VTVM?

I know a lot of us are stuck back in the mid 20th century, God knows I love running and working on my hollow state stuff. Considering the cost involved in building hollow state gear these days without a considerable source of parts, the new kids are better off ether buying new or building something that is transistorized.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Nothing like a pair of 833's modulated by a pair or if you must use Tetrodes, a 4-1000 modulated by a pair of your favourite Triodes. All with a spectral bandwidth of 30KC 50KC.

[AF6LJ]

Nothing like a pair of 833's modulated by a pair or if you must use Tetrodes, a 4-1000 modulated by a pair of your favourite Triodes. All with a spectral bandwidth of 30KC.

There Ya go
Unfortunately I don't have the space or the electrical service to run stuff like that, or I would.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

Used to be you could at least watch the meter spin round n' round. Now all you can do is watch it count up and up.

[AF6LJ]

Used to be you could at least watch the meter spin round n' round. Now all you can do is watch it count up and up.

I know; and I am not so sure those electronic watt hour meters are really all that safe.
The old ones were reliable.

I like to listen in the AM window on seventy five, occasionally at night, but usually after morning rag chew on weekends.

[VK5RC]

How about DUBUS for a good read! After I read a few articles my head hurts! HiHi
Above 2GHz very little commercial gear so its all got lots of real solder.
Come down to Gippstech next July for a great VHF and above conference! Lots of grey beards in attendance.

[RickBrant]

I think the question is not so much that ham radio is fading (it actually is making a very gradual recovery, at least in the US) but why it ever took off in the first place.

Think about it. When us old-timers got started in electronics there were typically no more than three categories of "electronic" devices in the house:

- one or more radios.
- one or more record players, possibly including radios. Maybe one of them in a "stereo console" in the living room.
- a TV set. ("Nobody has two TVs" - Marty McFly's grandmother)

The first thing most of us did was to make a "crystal set" - a radio receiver. A few of us built more complicated receivers, then got into ham radio - a natural extension.

At the time, a lot of us lived on property where we already had a TV antenna on a tall mast and if we put up a big ham antenna on a tower, the neighbors might complain a bit but they couldn't stop us.

Others got into home-built audio - an extension of the record player.

So now we have video games, home video, computers, and the internet. It's just a case of more directions to go with an interest in electronics.

The internet has collided with ham radio: We have digital modes, we have APRS, we have D-STAR, we have EchoLink and IRLP. I can key up my handheld 2m/440 transceiver and talk to people in many parts of the world (but mostly the western US), just by hitting my nearest "Winsystem" repeater. On the other hand, many more of us now live in apartments or in houses where HOAs prohibit outside antennas. (Or try to.) So HF, which needs big antennas, is definitely on the wane.

The microcomputer revolution has given us microcontrollers and op-amps that have opened up a *type* of hobby electronics to many people who just couldn't wrap their heads around analog (much past a simple one-transistor buffer stage, anyway) and who couldn't see slogging through minimization via Karnaugh maps to build things that need a state machine. And those things are getting used in ham radio, too. You can now run an IRLP node on a Raspberry Pi. For those who don't mind a little math, DSP opens up a whole new word of analog possibilities - not excluding radio receivers.

Things change, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of fun to be had.

[AF6LJ]

There is so much one can do and explore in amateur radio these days.

[john_p_wi]

My gut feeling is that amateur radio is on the rebound, although it does not have the same do-it-your self attitude as it once did.  I received my license back in mid-70s as a young teenager and built my first transceiver a Heathkit HW-101 after saving up lawn mowing money.  Sadly, by the time I completed the radio and power supply I discovered girls and cars - realizing they were a lot more fun and soon lost interest in HAM radio.

Fast forward 40 years with the proliferation of SDR radios and the desire for reliving a more simpler time of my life, I began to investigate radios and taking the exams all over again.

Living in Northern US, we have plenty of time for winter projects and I decided to build the low wattage mcHF software defined transceiver designed by M0NKA and supported by an active Yahoo users group.  So far, it has been an easy build with SMD 0805 components as the smallest  and mostly SOICs - except for the processor of course.  Sorry if the radio has been previously mentioned somewhere in the 30 pages of this thread...  I will say that for the most part it has allowed me to relive my youth - I just wont fall into the trappings of my youth this time upon completion lol.

Check out:

http://www.m0nka.co.uk/?page_id=569 for more info. 

In todays $$ it is less to build than the HW-101 was in the mid 70's, even though it has more features - but less output power.

Also check out youtube using:  M0NKA mchf

IF all goes well, I should be licensed and have the radio operational for field day 2016.

73

[AF6LJ]

I built a Softrock receiver and was reasonably satisfied with the performance. There is a build thread over on QRZ.com I also started the Softrock transceiver, that project is safely stashed away until I can get back to it.
They are fun projects. The only part that bothers me about the current crop of SDR radios is with the exception of a couple they are not stand alone radios. We are seeing a trend toward stand alone SDRs and hopefully the kits will catch up.

[john_p_wi]

The only part that bothers me about the current crop of SDR radios is with the exception of a couple they are not stand alone radios.

Exactly, that was one of the "draws" of the M0NKA mcHF for me - the standalone / portable aspect.

[AF6LJ]

The only part that bothers me about the current crop of SDR radios is with the exception of a couple they are not stand alone radios.

Exactly, that was one of the "draws" of the M0NKA mcHF for me - the standalone / portable aspect.

I am going to look into that more.
It is good to see that Icom is going to be coming out with a self contained SDR the IC-7300.