The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio (ieee.org) 153
Julianne Pepitone from IEEE Spectrum writes about the uncertain future of ham radio. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt: Will the amateur airwaves fall silent? Since the dawn of radio, amateur operators -- hams -- have transmitted on tenaciously guarded slices of spectrum. Electronic engineering has benefited tremendously from their activity, from the level of the individual engineer to the entire field. But the rise of the Internet in the 1990s, with its ability to easily connect billions of people, captured the attention of many potential hams. Now, with time taking its toll on the ranks of operators, new technologies offer opportunities to revitalize amateur radio, even if in a form that previous generations might not recognize. The number of U.S. amateur licenses has held at an anemic 1 percent annual growth for the past few years, with about 7,000 new licensees added every year for a total of 755,430 in 2018. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission doesn't track demographic data of operators, but anecdotally, white men in their 60s and 70s make up much of the population. As these baby boomers age out, the fear is that there are too few young people to sustain the hobby.
This question of how to attract younger operators also reveals deep divides in the ham community about the future of amateur radio. Like any large population, ham enthusiasts are no monolith; their opinions and outlooks on the decades to come vary widely. And emerging digital technologies are exacerbating these divides: Some hams see them as the future of amateur radio, while others grouse that they are eviscerating some of the best things about it. No matter where they land on these battle lines, however, everyone understands one fact. The world is changing; the amount of spectrum is not. And it will be hard to argue that spectrum reserved for amateur use and experimentation should not be sold off to commercial users if hardly any amateurs are taking advantage of it. One of the key debates in ham radio is its main function in the future: Is it a social hobby? A utility to deliver data traffic? And who gets to decide? "Those questions have no definitive or immediate answers, but they cut to the core of the future of ham radio," writes Pepitone. "Loring Kutchins, president of the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc. (ARSFi) -- which funds and guides the 'global radio email' system Winlink -- says the divide between hobbyists and utilitarians seems to come down to age."
"Younger people who have come along tend to see amateur radio as a service, as it's defined by FCC rules, which outline the purpose of amateur radio -- especially as it relates to emergency operations," Kutchins (W3QA) told Spectrum last year. Kutchins, 68, expanded on the theme in a recent interview: "The people of my era will be gone -- the people who got into it when it was magic to tune into Radio Moscow. But Grandpa's ham radio set isn't that big a deal compared to today's technology. That doesn't have to be sad. That's normal."
"Ham radio is really a social hobby, or it has been a very social hobby -- the rag-chewing has historically been the big part of it," says Martin F. Jue (K5FLU), founder of radio accessories maker MFJ Enterprises, in Starkville, Miss. "Here in Mississippi, you get to 5 or 6 o' clock and you have a big network going on and on -- some of them are half-drunk chattin' with you. It's a social group, and they won't even talk to you unless you're in the group."
This question of how to attract younger operators also reveals deep divides in the ham community about the future of amateur radio. Like any large population, ham enthusiasts are no monolith; their opinions and outlooks on the decades to come vary widely. And emerging digital technologies are exacerbating these divides: Some hams see them as the future of amateur radio, while others grouse that they are eviscerating some of the best things about it. No matter where they land on these battle lines, however, everyone understands one fact. The world is changing; the amount of spectrum is not. And it will be hard to argue that spectrum reserved for amateur use and experimentation should not be sold off to commercial users if hardly any amateurs are taking advantage of it. One of the key debates in ham radio is its main function in the future: Is it a social hobby? A utility to deliver data traffic? And who gets to decide? "Those questions have no definitive or immediate answers, but they cut to the core of the future of ham radio," writes Pepitone. "Loring Kutchins, president of the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc. (ARSFi) -- which funds and guides the 'global radio email' system Winlink -- says the divide between hobbyists and utilitarians seems to come down to age."
"Younger people who have come along tend to see amateur radio as a service, as it's defined by FCC rules, which outline the purpose of amateur radio -- especially as it relates to emergency operations," Kutchins (W3QA) told Spectrum last year. Kutchins, 68, expanded on the theme in a recent interview: "The people of my era will be gone -- the people who got into it when it was magic to tune into Radio Moscow. But Grandpa's ham radio set isn't that big a deal compared to today's technology. That doesn't have to be sad. That's normal."
"Ham radio is really a social hobby, or it has been a very social hobby -- the rag-chewing has historically been the big part of it," says Martin F. Jue (K5FLU), founder of radio accessories maker MFJ Enterprises, in Starkville, Miss. "Here in Mississippi, you get to 5 or 6 o' clock and you have a big network going on and on -- some of them are half-drunk chattin' with you. It's a social group, and they won't even talk to you unless you're in the group."
Mainly about technology now (Score:2)
I am in my 50s and have just joined an amateur radio club. Admittedly many of the members would be over 70. A lot of what goes on is hacking with technology generally, with some radio applications in the mix. But I can see our numbers contracting in the coming decades.
Re:Mainly about technology now (Score:5, Interesting)
Ham radio is growing where I live. We have a fantastic mix of new and old. An amazing set of provincial 2m band repeaters connected to the microwave backbone with province-to-province links that lets me dial up almost any repeater anywhere in the country from places far outside of cell phone coverage. Basic licenses are growing in popularity among the hiking crowd simply to have emergency communications wherever they go. I am in the navy and we are often off the coast - a lot of our repeaters have phone patches, and when I am on a ship with my equipment, the boys can call home from well beyond cell phone range. All this with a handheld radio you can get from Ali Express for $40. These capabilities have attracted a lot of recruits. So has the ability to talk directly to the ISS. When we put a notice in the paper that we're going to make an ISS call attempt at a field day, we've got whole high school classes who have come out. The HF bands are today as clogged as ever, in fact they are getting cloggier by the day - amateur radio, it's not a dying art. Just the opposite. The problem is that it's growing beyond the bandwidth we have. Because, in the end, being able to communicate from Canada to the Ukraine, direct, with no intervening infrastructure, transatlantic cables, satellites, dishes, or cell towers is just still as cool today as it was in 1930 while still being in that area of slightly black magic that it was back then. It's an amazing mix of new and nostalgic.
Governments of all levels depend on amateur radio as the communications of last resort. So does the Canadian Forces through the CFARS program. Various forms of VHF and HF data protocols mean that if the worldwide internet went down today, amateurs would have something back up tomorrow. Not something you'd be streaming movies over, for sure, but emails would be able to get through. Here in Nova Scotia, amateur radio operators are part of most county and municipality emergency management organizations with, literally, spots at the EMO situation room round tables. Why? Because when everything else goes down in a hurricane, we almost always have something that still works and even if we don't, we can get something up that works with a spool of wire shot over a tree with a bow and arrow.
People have been calling amateur radio the old folks dying hobby for years, and this just isn't true. It is as alive and vital as ever, and it's a great time to jump in.
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For something that might be up Slashdot alley, check out AREDN [arednmesh.org]. Self-configuring mesh network, firmware runs on cheap WiFi hardware (like, $30 Chinese routers), among other things. To the endpoints connected via said routers, it all looks like a regular intranet, TCP/IP etc.
Emergency comms (Score:2)
I got into ham mostly for emergency communications, I've been to a number of disaster drills as well as helping out with radio support for bike rides and other events without good cell coverage.
But with cellular coverage gaps becoming smaller and the ubiquity of satellite communications and relatively low cost phones, I feel that even that aspect of ham radio is becoming less needed.
I've really only used VHF/UHF, had a radio for a while that could do HF but never used it so am down to my VHF/UHF handheld a
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HAM radio.
"ham" is not an acronym. It's just "ham radio".
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During Puerto Rico's cellphone outage due to hurricane damage, amateur radio operators traveled to P.R. and assisted with disaster communication. Same with California wildfires.
Cellphone infrastructure can be overloaded or incapacitated during emergencies.
Here's how to bring in the young generation (Score:3)
The key phrase in the summary is: "Younger people who have come along tend to see amateur radio as a service, as it's defined by FCC rules, which outline the purpose of amateur radio -- especially as it relates to emergency operations,"
Radio hams were the first nerds, active two generations before any of the digital technologies came along. They helped broadcast raio mature as a commercial activity by experimenting with propagation in the remotest corners of the world.
One way forward might be to focus on emergency communications. This has always been one of the major ham activities, but with broadcasting a mature technology perhaps it's time to make disasters amateur radio's whole reason for being. Every hurricane, earthquake, every local mountain rescue is an opportunity for hobbyists to help push communications technology.
Re:Here's how to bring in the young generation (Score:5, Informative)
One way forward might be to focus on emergency communications. This has always been one of the major ham activities, but with broadcasting a mature technology perhaps it's time to make disasters amateur radio's whole reason for being. Every hurricane, earthquake, every local mountain rescue is an opportunity for hobbyists to help push communications technology.
They already do that (see RACES and things like Skywarn). The problem is that most emergency services managers want very little to do with hams because a lot of them are whackers who outfit their retired Crown Vic Police Interceptors with a dozen radios and antennas, black hubcaps, and many install emergency lights illegally. They show up at scenes and firegrounds and get in the way. They are not trained to any meaningful standard in emergency communications -- certainly not trained to local department regulations. Hams are a nuisance and unreliable in an emergency situation.
Plus, most modern public safety radio systems are quite resilient compared to 10 or 15 years ago. The systems are trunked, with multiple transmitter sites having backup power and redundant backhauls. Their radio systems will do far better in a hurricane than that clunky ass 100 ft tower some ham put up in his backyard.
Of course, there are exceptions to all of this, but mostly, they are not needed in this realm. I suppose this could change, but there is quite a bit of animosity on the part of ES management which needs to be repaired first.
Re:Here's how to bring in the young generation (Score:5, Interesting)
Mountain search and rescue is a major activity where I live. I have lobbied for years to get our 911 service to take text communications, since SMS gets through out of most of those deep canyons where voice will not work. If hams could accomplish something so simple as a patch relay between SMS and 911 voice, that would be a big advance.
Getting fancier: how about amateur-run drones carrying femtocell repeaters to pick up weak distress calls during a search and then relaying cell service so that EMS might get pictures of injury situations before deploying rescuers? On one of my hikes on a January morning, our leader slipped on an ice patch and broke her ankle. The weather was too foggy to send a helicopter, so EMS sent a big-wheel gurney. When it arrived, it was the default womens' size, and they did not know that this particular person was a foot too tall for it. It took another hour to get a man-sized gurney to the site - just try putting up with that while you have a broken ankle.
And you may recall what happened during the recent devastating wildfires in California, when a rural fire department lost its communications in the heat of battle when the station unexpectedly exceeded a monthly data cap. Amateur backup communications could have really helped there.
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Mountain search and rescue is a major activity where I live. I have lobbied for years to get our 911 service to take text communications, since SMS gets through out of most of those deep canyons where voice will not work. If hams could accomplish something so simple as a patch relay between SMS and 911 voice, that would be a big advance.
If you have a cellphone with a charge and it can hit a cell tower, text a family member - why does 911 need to accept text messages?
SMS messages travel on the same signal, on the same frequency, and rely on the same (basic) equipment as a voice cellphone call. A lost person with an operating cellphone can determine their GPS location and text it to anyone capable of receiving SMS messages.
Lost hikers rarely have functioning cellphones with them, and there is a brisk business in emergency locators that utili
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If hams could accomplish something so simple as a patch relay between SMS and 911 voice, that would be a big advance.
You know what would be better? If professional radio operators would do it. Relying on amateurs during emergencies is the same kind of masking of a problems as overworking because your boss refuses to employ another worker. It's masking an underlying problem at best and utterly self destructive at worst.
By all means setup a registered volunteer group. Train them. Put that minimum effort in to sure they can reliably do the job they are volunteering to do, but don't just say "oh hams could do that".
Re:Here's how to bring in the young generation (Score:5, Informative)
They already do that (see RACES and things like Skywarn). The problem is that most emergency services managers want very little to do with hams because a lot of them are whackers who outfit their retired Crown Vic Police Interceptors with a dozen radios and antennas, black hubcaps, and many install emergency lights illegally. They show up at scenes and firegrounds and get in the way. They are not trained to any meaningful standard in emergency communications -- certainly not trained to local department regulations. Hams are a nuisance and unreliable in an emergency situation.
You are describing scanner owners, not hams.
Groups like RACES and CERT require that applicants complete FEMA training courses and participate in a number of training session a year to maintain their certification. Also, the groups also require background checks to participate - mainly because when called up they are typically operating "behind the line" with police, FEMA, and other government agencies.
Remember the hurricane that hit Puerto Rico? A team of 20 or so HAMS were deployed for a couple weeks because they could provide communication around the island without requiring any infrastructure (like repeaters or cellphone towers), along with providing communication from the island to the continental US, helping residents reach out and assure family members they were OK. The value of the Ham operators is they train themselves, purchase and maintain their own equipment, and work for free.
Re:Here's how to bring in the young generation (Score:4, Informative)
Perhaps where you live, but not in the California foothills. The RACES folks etc. train regularly so that they CAN be useful in emergencies, typically wildfires. Most of the work the hams do don't intersect at all with the emergency services personnel. Those guys--police, fire fighters, etc--are communicating about fire fighting, road closures, air drops, ie the actual work of dealing with the emergency. The ham guys primarily provide communications for the civilians caught up in it, for example communicating between evacuation centers when the cell phones aren't working, locating relatives and providing information, stuff like that. The emergency services managers WANT the hams there to handle that, just as they prefer the Red Cross deal with finding shelter and services for evacuees. The professional emergency services personnel have neither the manpower nor the ability to handle the needs of all the civilians behind the lines when they're on the front lines dealing with the emergency.
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In my part of Texas, and in surrounding states, locals like to keep an eye on the weather - many new hams enter the hobby to become part of skywarn [weather.gov] for the NWS.
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Re: one word: 2 meter. (Score:3)
But 2 Meter is dead as Vaudeville in my major metro. Between mobile phones and digital modes, almost nobody is on analog 2 Meter anymore, around here at least.
And that leads to a special kind of emptying out: you can't run across an interesting conversation happening in public.
I got my technician license to do some beacon radio tracking, and picked up a dual-band HT for fun. It's mostly quiet, except for digital chirps, scarce phone from people talking about being on their radio (a little too meta) and the
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A local club (Dallas Amateur Radio Club [w5fc.org]) has nightly nets on their 2 meter repeater, a number of nets on Saturday night, and since the quarantine started, like many local clubs they have a well-attended mid-day net to discuss current events, new items of interest, etc.
If 2 meter repeaters are dead, ask your local club why they don't start a few nets?
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Jumping back into this topic, seems to me 2-way radio has gone the way of Kodak film. Or maybe consider it like those who work on their own cars such as restoration or keeping that classic '65 Mustang rolling. Yes, it has its uses and nowadays it is very lowcost. These days nobody uses 2-way, ok so a bit of a stretch but as I see it everyone has a phone, everyone uses a phone. Looking at IEEE communications society main focus is on complex computer based systems 2.4GHz and above. Public safety still uses 2-
COVID-19 test delays (Score:2)
I studied a month ago for both my Technician and General license tests. All I need is a test date...thanks COVID-19.
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The tests are now administered over Zoom. Go to hamstudy.org and register for a test. I'm in California but the people administering my test were in Texas.
Cell phones are useful, but there's something liberating about being able to climb a mountain and talk to people over 100 miles away using nothing but a $100 handheld radio and a good portable antenna.
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I'm unsure of the details, but there are online exams which are being proctored by webcam.
I'd look around the QRZ, VEC, and ARRL websites.
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See W5YI.org, they provide a link to the following resource: https://hamstudy.org/sessions [hamstudy.org]
The problem with HAM radio is... (Score:2, Interesting)
...the classes and tests are administered by HAMs and there never is one.
I have tried for YEARS to get a license only to find out that the nearest guy doing the test is in another city (because the guy in my city just up and quit). IF you can get scheduled to take the test there's a significant chance it will be cancelled.
Don't even get me started on the classes. Few and usually very inconvenient.
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There are some really good videos of classroom sessions on youtube now. Another useful resource is hamstudy.org. As to finding a test location, they have that posted up on arrl,org, but that doesn't help if you're in a sparsely populated area. Right now, the tests in many areas are still being delayed by COVID.
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Find a local amateur radio club and find out what VE team they recommend.
It's hard for me to imagine going years without being able to find an exam session. They are more or less all listed on the ARRL website.
Re:The problem with HAM radio is... (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.arrl.org/find-a-clu... [arrl.org]
Re:The problem with HAM radio is... (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at the online resources provided by the ARRL:
http://www.arrl.org/getting-yo... [arrl.org]
http://www.arrl.org/studying-f... [arrl.org]
And by the way, the entire question pool, along with the correct answers, is made available by the FCC to aid individuals in studying - the ARRL provides a link to the question pool:
http://www.arrl.org/tech-quest... [arrl.org]
I'd suggest purchasing a study manual - I think the ARRL books are the best for individual study, but there are others available - check Amazon, your local book seller, or local ham radio retailer, if you have one in your area.
http://www.arrl.org/shop/Ham-R... [arrl.org]
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Not trying to argue with you, I know all about the study guides I have several, I know about the online stuff, I know about the test questions and answers by the FCC. The problem with these is, if you want to regurgitate the answers and pass, you're great. If you actually want to learn useful stuff, you can't, you can't ask questions. As far as contact/join a local club, I refer you back to: "only to find out that the nearest guy doing the test is in another city (because the guy in my city just up and q
Another Ham in my 50s' (Score:2)
Others, legitimately, identify the code as being part of the problem. It wasn't just the code, it was the mindset that insisted hanging onto it for so lon
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You can't make someone interested in Ham Radio, they have to be drawn to it.
The average ham found out about Ham Radio because they saw a house, car, truck, or field setup that had antennas all over it and screwed up the nerve to ask the owner of the house, car, truck or setup in the park what they were doing and feeling a sense of wonder and curiosity.
Can you honestly say you could "make" someone interested in robotics without the promise of a standout entry on their college application, the school district
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I'm a little bit younger, a HAM in his 40's.
If you want 'young uns' get interested in technology in general (a pre-requisite for making them interested in wireless technology specifically) you have to 'nudge' early. For example, take time and effort to get projects going in primary/secondary school and in scouting groups. Something easy and hands-on which you can finish in a physics (the sciency kind) class lesson, or maybe two. Like a simple signal detector. Two dollars in through hole components and a (ch
Let's get real here.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I am licensed.
The problem with Amateur Radio is that a large part of the community rejects newer technologies. Even though those technologies that are now buried in current "appliance" radios that are for sale.
There's nothing wrong with maintaining proficiency in classic technology. In fact that needs to remain part of the hobby. It's also a lot of fun!
However, there is strong resistance to introduction of newer technologies that range from software defined radio to newer digital modes. Computer proficiency in the hobby is absurdly low. A large number of hams reject the involvement of these technologies in the hobby and outright reject their inclusion as "Not Real Ham Radio".
In addition, those hams who do have an expertise in newer technology are often sidelined or ridiculed for not knowing Morse code, component electronics, or whatever "yesterday tech" is favored.
This is a cultural problem.
Thankfully there are still clubs who are active, growing, and embracing new technologies. They aren't rare, but they are a minority.
My club has at least five graduate level electrical engineers, about five programmers, a huge group of IT generalists, educators, lawyers, and some old fogies in leadership. And thank god for that. We've got 3 moon bounce stations in the club. We have a programmer writing codecs and SDR software. We run a remotely accessible HF club station. We are active, competent, and surprisingly all friends- 75 members strong.
Heck in my area we even have a locally owned an operated ham radio/electronics store where we can get anything we want. Last weekend I purchased two diplexers.
However, the ARRL (The National Association of Amateur Radio) has pegged their hopes to "emergency communications". So we have those wackers, with the amber mars lights on their Chevettes, emergency vests, and bad attitudes running around representing the hobby to others. And these people honestly believe that programming a radio for a repeater system is some form of "technical excellence".
Is there a solution? I'm not sure there really needs to be one. Wackers don't last long and leave the hobby after a while. Those unwilling to learn disappear as well.
In the USA we could easily benefit from lower numbers of licensees. If those remaining are more technically competent, or even willing to learn, it would lower the signal to noise ratio greatly.
That is of course one opinion.
Re:Let's get real here.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree with what you say. I think there's another cultural problem: the way amateur radio is licensed. The process is basically to memorize a whole lot of rules and procedures, and then being able to recite them on the test. This means the demographic you get is people who are good at memorizing rules and procedures, and citing them on demand.
It's quite different from the software world, where people get curious about how things work, and start tinkering with them, and creating neat things. There's no bureaucratic wall to get over to get started.
Clearly some sort of education and licensing is necessary, due to the nature of the globally shared medium. That barrier has prevented it from becoming total chaos. However, I'd love to see a lower level of licensing for some narrow bands for people who just want to tinker. Keep the rules they have to memorize to a bare minimum: stay in your band; limit your power (something much more than ISM, but keep it under a hundred watts perhaps); and so on. DON'T worry so much about station identification, codewords, and such... this is for people who want to try getting an SDR and send some data to their friend across town, not the ones who want to participate in nets on big repeaters or talk across oceans.
Those entry-level bands will be pretty chaotic, but it'd let a lot more people play with it. And if they want to get into the big leagues, they apply for a higher level of license, much like going from Technician to General.
Re:Let's get real here.... (Score:5, Informative)
To earn a Technician license in the US, the exam covers RF Safety, Operation, and basic electronics. The exam consists of 35 multiple choice questions, and allows you to operate a transmitter that can, if operated improperly, cause health or safety issues.
You don't have to memorize the questions, you do need to be able to answer the questions - many hams spend years trying to understand all the electronics theory required to pass the Extra exam, others spend a few weeks "cramming" with flash cards, but to be honest, the Extra exam pool is what, 750 questions? You really can't just "memorize" all 750 questions.
The current exam structure is fine - learn a little, talk around town. Learn a bit more, you can talk around the world. Want to have bragging rights, prepare to study a lot. Earning an Extra license confers little operating benefit over a General license, just a few little bits of band here and there.
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The explosion of DMR radios, along with the incredible sales figures for radios like the Flex Radio and Icom SDR radios disprove your basic assertion about adopting new technologies.
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Those radios are appliances. And while their performance is excellent you don't see hams flocking to develop software with the Flex API do you? Anyone hacking Icom's firmware? Bueller?
In fact the only hacking going on on those two platforms is KE9NS' PowerSDR for older Flex Radios, and a number of hacks to the frequency calibration system on the Icom 9700 because when it's fan turns on it drifts off frequency.
Please. Owning an appliance radio does not equate to technical excellence or growth.
Internet killed it (Score:3)
It used to be an accomplishment to contact someone on a new continent (sometimes with homemade equipment!) but the internet made that not a big deal. Cell phones really cemented things with any asshole being able to call around the world or access wikipedia out in the middle of a lake.
Things have gotten more interesting with SDR but the old farts don't care about it. Having a receiver that goes from 22MHz to 2GHz would have cost tens of thousands of dollars not so long ago. Now its a usb dongle used for receiving television and they cost $12.
Can it transmit? (Score:2)
That's the thing. A broadband-multiband receiver is writing new software for that $12 USB dongle. An SDR transmitter with remotely the same capabilities, however, costs $1000+?
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Take a look at the HackRF for $299. Way more than $12 but also better overall specs
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If you really want it on the cheap, start with an RTL2832U based DVB-T receiver. $10 US fresh off of Ebay or Alibaba, free shipping.
Then upgrade to a HackRF, SRD-Play or (for the wizzkids out there) the ADALM Pluto in the $100-ish US range.
If that's not enough, yeah. go spend another order of magnitude in cash. Those commoditized receivers are so cheap because they are made in bulk and software is written only once for millions of units. If you want a commodity SDR transmitter you're probably part of a pool
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Oh, how I hate > and < not properly being escaped.....
If you want a commodity SDR transmitter you're probably part of a pool of < 1000 customers. The company will need to spread the R&D and software costs over that same pool. So be prepared to see a price tag on one SDR transmitter unit, the equivalent of > 1000 bulk receivers for the company to break even.
Why I want to transmit. (Score:2)
I "get" the narrower market and the higher cost.
I was just saying that a receiver is only half of the "equation."
I am currently simulating the FM transmitter and receiver entirely in software in the university-level engineering course on analog modulation this Fall. I suppose with a cheap SDR receiver ($10 is a "reasonable" expense for every student to incur), I could just have the exercise to receive a commercial FM station? Or maybe I need just one transmitter SDR to implement a local, low-power FM
Licenses != Users (Score:2)
Ham is probably more popular than it has ever been. Look into usage by offroaders and "overlanders." Usage is soaring. The Boafeng UV-5R is a ubiquitous piece of kit for those who venture out onto the trails. CB, once the 4x4 staple, has all but been abandoned for devices capable of more channels and and privacy. With such people, we're talking about responsible users in the middle of nowhere. There's no possible justification for these users needing a license, so they don't get them.
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There's FRS and GMRS - GMRS technically requires a license, but it is a simple "ask for a license" application/registration form.
CB is fine for outback adventure clubs, the 27 MHz band is fine for close-in comms and the radios are cheap (not Baofeng cheap, but cheap).
Many outdoor clubs use 2 meter Ham radios, they are affordable ($125), the antennas are small (18" vs 102"), and virtually no interference.
Any reasonably technical person can study the license manual for a week, take the exam on Saturday, and h
Re: Licenses != Users (Score:2)
It's not that the licenses are hard to get or expensive, it's that there's no good reason to bother getting one.
Someone Wants to Buy The Bandwidth (Score:2)
Old tech is survival tech (Score:3)
When the latest trend of populist demagoguery runs to its inevitable conclusion, and WW3 solves climate change for us, ham radio will be the only Internet we have left. So perhaps we should keep those skills current.
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There are many old stuff that are still useful today.
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I guess my area is different. We have two clubs locally. One is mostly the old white guy "elmer" club, the other is part of the university and consist of a very diverse group of kids in their early 20's. The two groups get together regularly to do things. I learned a lot about digital modes from the young kids, and they learn good antenna design etc... from us.
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What horseshit - most hams I know, and I know a lot, can't stop talking to everyone they know about their hobby.
One interesting thing I've noticed is that many hams entered the hobby after the CB craze went bust, but they enjoyed working high-power stations with directional antennas and talking "skip", so when the bands "died" they moved on to Amateur radio - but they keep their 11 meter past a secret.
need a house and be a tinkerer (Score:2)
Seems to me focus of ham radio is HF. In order to do HF you have to have a house. Bam, that just eliminated all the young people who will never own a house to erect a tower. Also demographics are most live in urban areas in apartment or condo buildings, so pretty much zero chance erecting a HF antenna. Yes there are some creative methods but let's get real. Gotta have something serious to at least put on the roof. There is 2-meter, 440, and higher but there hasn't been new people coming in so many of those
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Most of these people are not registered as radio amateurs, since most receive only, or transmit at very low power with highly dire
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In order to do HF you have to have a house.
No you don't - many hams participate in NPOTA and SOTA by taking portable radios and make-shift antennas to parks and mountain top and with their battery-powered radios attempt to make HF contacts around the world. Others use small directional antennas, head to an open field, and with a low-power HT or battery-powered VHF/UHF radio attempt to make contacts over satellites.
Of course, portable HF is an option if you own a car, and there is a growing segment of the hobby that use remote controlled "super stati
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Nope, just a pair of feet. Here's New Jersey to Italy on a portable radio [youtube.com]. You can get even more portable if you're willing to learn Morse code.
Spectrum Needed? (Score:2)
Ham radio seems neat and all but surely it's, using up valuable spectrum that could be used for delivering internet or something. I mean it would be a shame but greater good and all right? (The declining prevelance of operators and equipment undermines the public safety case for ham)
Or is it all kinda useless because of some reason? Hoping someone can explain.
Re: Spectrum Needed? (Score:2)
Re: Spectrum Needed? (Score:2)
Thanks! And I presume it's too far from any other spectrum to just be tacked on to slightly boost bandwidth for wireless internet or mobile or whatever.
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The vast majority of Amateur Radio activity is on the HF bands, which are unsuitable for any real purpose beyond communicating around the world - the entire HF spectrum is 30 MHz, and ham allocations add up to about 3 MHz, a fraction of a single WiFi channel at 2.4 GHz.
No "Greater Good" would be served by handing the various ham bands to a commercial service - SW broadcasting is dying, marine and aviation needs are more than meet by current HF allocations, and the Military has all the bandwidth they need, a
Extra class who's never even keyed up in HF (Score:2)
Twenty-odd years ago, I tested up all the way to Extra (5 WPM era). I know basic electronics and enjoy taking tests. Still have a license, still sorta know Morse. Have some 2m stuff I rarely use.
I've gone to several club meetings of a couple clubs. I haven't been ignored that hard since girls in high school! Even went out a couple years to a Field Day station, and after an hour of not getting even a grunt from anyone, I went home.
As such, I never really found the motivation to spend the money to buy and se
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Find a better club, they aren't all the same - http://www.arrl.org/find-a-clu... [arrl.org]
Why not virtualize (Score:2)
What's the benefit of actually using airwaves for this? Couldn't you just create a simulated HAM radio system using the internet and both free up the bandwidth and leave the social aspect intact?
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Most active amateurs moved up the spectrum into microwave radio decades ago, tinker with satellites and can't be bothered with old HF kit. (https://www.rtl-sdr.com)
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The purpose of Amateur Radio is to advance the art of Radio Technology and provide public service in time of need.
An Internet "simulation" of amateur radio is nonsensical. The vast majority of hams enjoy designing and building stations of their own design (typically from purchased devices, not scratch-built), that enable them to communicate around the world, talk with friends, and try out new ideas.
One thing I hear on several of the Ham bands are Nets of older guys, friends for decades, who check in every d
HAM needs a killer app. (Score:5, Interesting)
I got my technician license so I could use 2M radios for hang glider operations. At many sites where we fly cell phones are useless so most pilots have HAM radios.
The local HAM organization once came to do a presentation at one of our club meetings and pointed out that the majority of licensed HAMs in the area were the pilots from the club.
And that's the problem. Unless you just really enjoy playing around with circuits and antennas and stuff there isn't really much else that HAM is good for. Everyone who has a set is waiting for the day there will be some disaster that knocks out all other communication and then their radio skills will make them all heroes. Meh.
The only other possible app is robotics, but that is pretty well served with 802.11 type gear which has gotten really cheap and feature rich and easy to plug into.
I hope HAM never goes away but it is really living off of weak tea.
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Here is where everyone went:
https://amsat-uk.org
https://satnogs.org
https://www.rtl-sdr.com
You are welcome!
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Most Radio Amateurs don't register (Score:3)
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Be free. Never register.
Half Past Dead (Score:3)
My local ham club was guys in the 70s and 80s. I used to joke the average age was half past dead. Nobody liked that joke.
The main threat to ham radio is ham radio. We've got local repeaters that sit unused for 23.5 hours a day but when people do get on there and talk, they get nervous after five minutes that somebody else might possibly want to talk, so they vacate. Everybody is in such a hurry to not tie up the signal, nobody dares to use it. It's like a library where everyone tip-toes around trying not to make any noise.
The other thing in the way is people who argue about what ham radio IS anyway. For example, DSTAR was hot for a period. I don't know if it still is. I had to sell all my radios a few years ago, But at the time, there were a lot of people who insisted DSTAR wasn't ham radio because it could be done from a computer to another computer.
DMR was also booming when I sold my gear. That was digital but at least was radio to node or whatever. Is THAT ham radio?
There are a lot of guys who insist CW is the only kind of ham radio. All others are worthless.
It's not a very inviting hobby, especially when other technologies render out the same results without all the issues.
I'll be renewing my license this fall but I'll probably never talk on a radio again.
Anemic growth? (Score:2)
The number of licenses is growing. Complaining about the rate of growth is just really weird. Inventing a problem where none exists.
Relax. (Score:2)
Some people like to use radios
Some people like to design radios
Some people like to build radios from other peoples designs
Some people are not interested in any of the above
There is space for all,
When I got my licence in the 1970s, it was expected that you were only looking to design & build a radio, so were required to prove you could make something that would not interfere with other peoples TV/Radio equipment. They were not concerned whether your equipment actually worked. World wide licencing allows
To my experience... (Score:2)
Software Defined Radio (Score:2)
An old friend in its early 60 has stopped using HAM recently after seeing me using Software Defined Radio consisting of components worth less than $100 to do things totally unimaginable to him ever before even with a budget of Millions. He was doing communication field operations for military and emergency units in his twenties so he has a pretty good understanding how things are rolling.
He simply said "My HAM-background from 1980 is as valuable today as a caveman background".
Sad and partly true.
We both sti
Exams need to go online as RSGB has proven. (Score:2)
Re:white men in their 60s and 70s (Score:5, Interesting)
The OWGs are moaning that there are no new hams, but they created much of this problem. For many years, they lobbied against changing the qualifications to eliminate requirements for learning obsolete skills like Morse Code. That makes about as much sense as requiring new car drivers to know how to shoe a horse. Now they are upset that the YWGs chose to walk away.
Disclaimer: I know Morse Code, but learned in the military, not from ham radio.
OWG = Old White Guy
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Yeah, that was a major problem for a long time, but it also changed ages ago now (at least in the US)-- I went up to Amateur Extra without morse code in... 2010 or 2011. Don't remember when it actually changed.
Somehow I feel like it would be a good idea to require it at least for Extra, given its prevalence on the HF bands. shrug
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It changed in the late 1990s - I earned my first license in 1996 - No Code Technician - General, Advanced, and Extra lost their CW requirements over the following few years.
CW is enjoying a bit of a resurgence, now that it is no longer required - people try and learn it for the challenge, and the practicality of their CW signal getting through when a voice signal struggles to make the contact. I've tried to learn it several times - a local club offers classes a couple times a year, always a full roster of s
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You don't need a class to learn Morse code. There are plenty of apps and websites.
I learned it from watching flapper lights sending signals between amphibious ships during otherwise idle days at sea. But it was all visual, so I still have problems listening to beeps but I can easily understand a blinking LED.
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Dropping your callsign on /. is strangely admirable and really foolish.
There's a contingent on this site who like finding out people's personal information- because they are blackhats.
And just gave them a lot of information.
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You are a complete idiot.
Learning to drive is different to learning how to build a car.
Go back to facebook.
Re: white men in their 60s and 70s (Score:2)
obsolete skills like Morse Code.
I dunno. Came in pretty handy in the movie Independence Day...
Re:white men in their 60s and 70s (Score:5, Insightful)
CB Radio and Amateur Radio both were and still are fairly popular among people of color - while many entered the hobbies after work in the military, a fair number enjoyed the social aspect of the hobby. And while CB is and was all voice, Amateur Radio was also popular because when operating CW (Morse Code) no one knows your ethnicity.
People like to get all worked up over the lack of youth in the hobby, but in actuality the hobby is doing fine IMHO - there is a near constant stream of empty nesters (men, typically but not always white, aged 45 and up) that wander into Ham Radio stores, wondering what they missed by going into computers and ignoring Amateur Radio.
The region I live in has three clubs within 20 minutes of my house that each have 200+ dues-paying members (just outside DFW), and Texas has 75K hams in the state - California has about 100K, and Florida has about 45K. There are three-quarter of a million licensed Hams in the US.
Some people enter the hobby to support other interests (weather/storm-spotting, public service, etc.)
Some people enter the hobby to play with shiny toys
Some people enter the hobby for the weekend activities, monthly meetings, and weekly meet-ups at local restaurants
Some people enter the hobby because they are drawn to the technical challenges of putting a signal in the air and finding where it "lands" around the globe
Some people enjoy Radiosport - participating in international contests seeing how many stations around the globe they can work in a few hours, a 24 hour period, a weekend, or year. They compete for bragging rights and commaraderie.
The hobby is doing just fine, thank you very much.
Re: white men in their 60s and 70s (Score:2)
Newsflash - you generally cant tell someone ethnicity from their voice either unless they're doing some cliched rapper voice or are an immigrant. And what exactly is the semantic difference between people or colour and coloured people?
Re: white men in their 60s and 70s (Score:2)
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It is good to hear that things are looking up in HAM land, the field has a distinct can-do and self-reliant attitude which can be hard to find in the X-as-a-Service pull-in-a-thousand-dependencies cloud-everywhere 'modern' vision of IT.
But... was it really necessary to pull in skin colour here? Yes, like on the 'net nobody knew you were a dog back in the days that famous cartoon was published - things are different now, the dog will have a chip which it can use to log in to Shitter - nobody knows much about
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Your own quote says licences are growing. And seeing as how the growth in licences has exceeded population growth (by 2X in 2018), it's not unreasonable to opine that the hobby is doing ok.
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For the same reason as the rest of the population, you idiot
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When Puerto Rico lost it's cellphone infrastructure due to hurricane damage, amateur radio operators organized and sent by the ARRL helped with communication on the island.
Amateur radio still provides useful radio communication in emergency situations. Additionally during California wildfires, cellphone infrastructure failed also. Amateur radio provided communication in these emergencies.
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Yeah, ham radio was carrying messages from one end of the island to the other over repeaters on hilltops. Those antennas blew down in the hurricane too, but local hams just trotted back up those hills and stood them up again. One of the repeaters would go off air around midnight every night, and come back in the morning. Turns out it was on backup power with solar panels, the battery would run out at night, and the sun would recharge the battery in the morning and it would then resume operation. Sate
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They have nothing against binary. The rule is nothing encrypted. Ever hear of amateur tv? Plenty of digital signals out in the ether.
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Encoding information is fine, encrypting it to obscure the contents is illegal. Its the obscuring information that is the defining aspect.
Re:Wanted to get into it in the 90's... (Score:5, Informative)
Among one of the stupider comment I read in this thread. RTTY, a mode that Hams have been enjoying for over half a century are transmitted as binary signals. We transmit "digital" information all the time - FT8, PSK, WSPR, D-STAR, DMR, C4FM, etc. And many hams enjoy creating non-commercial digital networks (AREDN) using common consumer WiFi equipment running alternate firmware to support operating in the 2.4 GHz Amateur Band, (commonly referred to as "channel -3"),
Ham radio is not a substitute for WiFi, and it is illegal to engage in commerce over the airwaves.
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Exactly. Case in point was Puerto Rico's cellphone infrastructure failure due to hurricanes. Amateur radio provided disaster communication there.