Took me all of two seconds to view it, less time than it took you to vent your misplaced frustration...
Didn't read any instructions. Click on it and then click go to sway. How much easier could it be? You have a ham license?
Big Mahalo for such a comprehensive report ! Interesting to see the FM stats. IMHO a fully modulated FM signal sounds better than some of the Digital modes but then that's just IMHO. G3SEA/KH6
Techs are numerous in the SW and we find they are CB'ers with repeaters once installed by a better breed of Ham. The hobby has been seriously damaged and diminished and we can thank the ARRL and their self interest for most of the damage.
This is interesting and a lot of work. Thank you. A few comments: 1) The formatting is confusing as you have the titles some times at the top of the card/ slide/ graph, some times below. 2) Accessibility is an issue as the graphics don't seem to have proper ALT IMG descriptions which make them useless for blind users with screen readers. 3) From your intro: This year was also new in that I received a larger than normal amount of vitriol and aggression. It's typical when conducting something like this and I tend to not taking it personally. I was the subject of no less than 4 death threats this year, so that was new and exciting. At least to me - my wife, not so much. Regardless of that, I will continue to conduct this survey for as long as the community finds interest and value in it. WTF people? Death threats over a ham radio survey? I don't want to know what happens when something really irritating happens to these individuals when a simple survey about a hobby already creates such a reaction. What a sad example of humanity. 73 Mike K5TRI / DK5TRI
Great survey...I wish that 10 times as many hams had participated. Hopefully the ARRL takes a look and digests the data. I've observed that about 30% of our fellow Americans have mild to severe emotional disturbances, and that the perceived anonymity of the keyboard gives them cyber muscles. All I can recommend is to continue the great work and, as is typical of many hams...be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
Mike, I had death threats--and attempts to get me fired from my university professorship---from hams. That was over fractal antennas. Oh, and a well known ham claiming he built one of my antennas and it was so inefficient it burnt his farm, scorching many acres. All nonsense. Almost 20 years ago. Recently I have had hams cancel my travel reservations. Now I tell hotels to only cancel if the party can read back the CC #. I actually traced one of the situations(not the above) and was ready to go legal. He died shortly thereafter(of cancer). He was a prominent QRZed poster. I don't blame Fred for giving him a voice, but IMO the behavior should not have happened at all. One of the reasons I do NOT get on SSB (save rarely) is the anti-semitic responses I frequently get when I call CQ. And on CW, I get responses (frequently) like K1KE; J3W; etc. (NOTE K1KE is a real person and a fine one; his call was spoofed as a hate response to me). Despite all this, I am still here, enjoy ham radio enormously, and think the world of my fellow hams. The world, especially the US, is a nasty place with contentiousness and hate nowadays. If you give in to it, you encourage it. BTW, drunk hams have called in the middle of the night with slurred verbiage on the other end. This was in the land line days. I know that must have been upsetting to your wife, but all you need to realize is that any death threat probably came from some old timer(s) who has trouble urinating, let alone the ability to pursue a death threat. Such individuals are not 'crusty'. They are uninhibited and don't give a damn. And many of them are closer to our Maker than they think, based on the demographic curves.... Take away: IF YOU REPORT ATTITUDES (as in a survey), YOU ENABLE CHANGE. Some people hold onto the past at any cost. They are threatened by it and will do whatever they need to to stop it. Fortunately their actual ability to pursue may be limited by their ability to find a john every 2 hours.....for example. 73 Chip W1YW
Chip, I was responding to the OP, I haven't received death threats. Sorry to hear about your shitty experience as well. I don't operate SSB except maybe in a contest, plus for the most part I operate from my station in Germany. Much different environment. 73 Mike K5TRI / DK5TRI
