And remember the rule. If Gary could get Wayne (probably unlicensed) to sit for an interview - he would first have to get it approved by the Blowhard Committee. The membership of which has probably contributed approximately zero dollars to fund his efforts. The one time I contributed so far ($100) was right after heavy criticism of a show that I had appreciated. I decided I had to show my support. One of these days I will have to do it again.
Some people on this wonderful message board possess inner strife. I do not believe any person on this board is actually of hateful or curmudgeon manner. And not an embarrassment to humanity. Why think such a thought? Now that is ugly for sure. Every person on the board has eaten at a restaurant and were disappointed by the service or the food or the tab and vowed not to return. And you conveyed your so-called negative view of the restaurant to someone else. Yes you have. No? How about a movie that didn’t suit you at the cinema theater? I ask does an opinion unlike yours equate to hate? Equate to negativity? And that other ridiculous statement? Comments most welcome. (not unwelcomed; you are who you are) Jesse- KK6PKN
I think your examples of unsatisfied CUSTOMERS is way off the mark. Your reference is to commercial enterprises that you MUST pay to receive their services. Here we are talking about an activity where you can sample everything for free, as often as you want, and then contribute voluntarily if you choose to support it. I believe it this case, those with the harshest criticism have the least invested. Anyone can decide for themselves for FREE if Gary is doing a good job overall. We don't need negative reviews to save us from paying for bad service. If you don't like a particular show, just go away and do something else. I have done it several times. I don't care why it didn't meet someone else's high standards. And speaking of standards. I don't bother with many other show hosts. Some that I have tried to follow have had very poor audio. I shut them down right away. If it sucks, they have to know it. I don't have to point it out to them. Gary has had consistent good quality audio (it never has to be 100% perfect to be good). And an interesting guest is an interesting guest, even if it is not 100% pure ham radio.
No hate or curmudgeon type attitudes on this board? That's funny right there. I don't have a problem because their opinion is different from mine but because they are constantly put EVERYTHING down, and yes, that diminishes their value to humanity exponentially, in my opinion. Some of these people just need to fade off into the sunset. I am done being nice with narrow minded inconsiderate people. Yet some defend them and still wonder why we have trouble attracting decent people, especially young people, to the hobby. I applaud what these people have done! Even if the interview was not perfect so what?
We need to expand the adult beverage selection at the Ryders booth. I'll drop off some hard ciders next year.
As for this A-hole writing to you, I just haven't bothered with taking the Amateur Radio exams at this time. I registered without using a call sign so as to not misrepresent. I just haven't had the time yet to do so. I'm currently operating on some of the so called unregulated bands by chosen frequencies. I'm not criticizing anyone for amateur radio. I do have an interest in packet radio technologies. I'm just following the rules (more or less). When I get a chance to take the exams at some point, perhaps but I hope to see the exam a little closer to Astoria, Oregon area instead of having to travel out of town for about an hour just to get to the exam site. After all, we do have a community college which would make for a great testing location.
Mrs. Jeri, I've seen some of your videos while letting my mind wander and waste time on you tube. Personally I adore, appreciate and enjoy your inventive spirit and will never forget when you made some transistor junctions in your kitchen oven if I recall. We NEED people like you in our hobby and society regardless of your age or gender! Don't let any negativity here or elsewhere discourage you. You should see all the negativity I "generously" received when I purchased TEN TEC and Alpha, which was just the same crap I received when I introduced the first commercially available legal limit solid state amplifier under my Dishtronix banner. All were "doomed to failure" and yet I'm still here years later and will continue to be here. You have to realize that a large part of this internet posting forum is retired old men with too much time on their hands, and rather than examine their own lives they live only for a chance to criticize others. They don't realize that they harm the hobby and run off many AWESOME younger ( and older!) people like you with their behavior, and that by doing so they are cutting the throat of the future of both the hobby and the industry. You are just seeing a small percentage of the great people in the hobby. Most of us have jobs and lives outside our keyboard and NEVER have time to make a post like this. remember probably 2% of any activity is rotten apples. We have a far greater number of very intelligent, skilled and accomplished gentlemen in our hobby and I can say this factually because I've met them both on the air and in person at various gatherings over the year. When I started in this hobby I was 8 years old. My grandfather schooled me on behaving like a gentleman and made it quite clear that I represented not only myself but him and my family as well, and that if I fell short of the mark I would no longer be on the air. In the early seventies this was a gentleman's hobby with fairly steep entry barriers in terms of both licensing and equipment investment. If someone fell short of the mark the rest of the community simply did not answer their CQs. It didn't take long for a bad apple to be ostracized, and to then leave. Anyway I'm waxing nostalgic for better times when being a gentleman on and off the air mattered so please do excuse me. I'll close and say that should you ever want to experiment, research projects or work with any of my companies that I'd be glad to have someone like you on board. If you would ever like to talk about anything I invite you to call or contact me through any of the Ten Tec, Alpha or Dishtronix websites. Keep going strong and doing what you are doing. I appreciate you and what you are doing with social media to attract a lot of intelligent young women (and men also) into science and technology who might otherwise do a less productive activity. Science and technology is absolutely critical to the defense and security of our country, and the resulting technology that trickles down eventually into consumer goods elevates the overall human condition. Look at how much air conditioning alone has changed the planet and made inhospitable regions livable and able to do manufacturing. Can any high technology factory really not be air conditioned? To anyone else reading this, I would remind you that all of humanity can be simply divided into two classes: those that work to make things better and those who make things worse. Which side of that line do you choose to be on? With Sincere Admiration and Appreciation, 73 DE Mike N8WFF
Yeah, I feel the same way about this site. Guess I was lucky enough to have parents who raised me right. Many years ago, I was taught, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it." There are better ways to state your views by using a little tact and diplomacy. Oh well, the times, they are a changin... Keep your head up & keep moving forward, Jeri. Great work!
Some of you folks can read but you cannot comprehend the context but one way. Any surmised critique of the video is not about Ms. Jeri or Ms. Amy. Any critique, albeit positive, is about the production quality and interest. Jeri and Amy had nothing to do with that. As far as Mr. Gary, he did what he thought was right at the time. Each one of you has critiqued openly (with or without rudeness) about something; radio, antenna, car, ball player, fishing hole, etc. Thank you kindly. Jesse- KK6PKN
It's not reading comprehension issues but lack of clarity about who or what was being critique. Good communication is clear without leaving any room to be interpreted other than exactly what is stated. How would a reasonable person interpret or understand this: "And these women are important why???? Worst interview ever. You may want to dump this one." A good communicator must keep in mind the temporal context including the context of the surrounding world at that moment in time. When you have a President of the U.S. who spoken on live television some very derogatory views of women and has caused a lot of controversy on literally every front from racism, religious discrimination, to sexism, and so forth being very much a major global wide issue.... but especially in the United States context that is the majority of the user based on this site and forum. It should be understood in these times, that such a message can be and reasonably understood with some misogynistic lean. When misogyny has been in our face by the POTUS and reacted to by the media, people are going to be sharply critical of statements resembling misogyny in any way or form. A good communicator is conscientious of the context of place and time and artfully craft their points with that in mind. How well do we do that??? I think we all miss the 8-ball from time to time. Your particular critique is not really an issue. I don't think people were reacting to your critique which had nothing to be responded to by words. You made a point, it was probably noted after all it is a written communication that is there and will still be there even by the end of next week. It doesn't just magically disappear and nothing in it would rise to a level for a good moderator to bother to remove. You have made a point and its there. What else do you expect? Really, there is only one poster's who comment was potentially rude. As for the other critiques like the gentleman who was wondering what castAR has to do with HAM Radio. My response basically was, the interview wasn't about "castAR" as much as it is about what the background of the two women interviewed. They were interviewing two women (Jeri Ellsworth, co-founder of castAR, Inc. and Amy who worked as an employee of castAR, Inc. {to the best of my knowledge}) and because their professional work involved a non-HAM radio product such as castAR augmented reality glasses which can be used for gaming and non-gaming applications. In theory, with new generations of radio communication and high speed "packet radio", it is conceivable that these augmented reality technologies can be used in conjunction with computers and advance new generations of HAM radio technology. For example, there is HAMWAN and other technologies including those in higher GHz spectrum range with ability to have wide enough channels to transmit over the air digital content. This digital content can be anything from say.... video + IRC-like communication. Think.... say "Skype" over HAM on high bandwidth channels. There maybe the possibility to even have fun playing a video game over some of the HAM channels. Sure, we can do this on frequencies not subject to HAM licensing. Imagine using castAR+computer as a 3d visualization tool taking data about weather conditions transmitted over HAM and use that data to visually generate in a 3d space. Sure, you can also use a regular monitor. These are just ideas that a person could employ these technologies in connection with HAM. While castAR itself does not directly relate to HAM Radio, there is ways this technology could be employed to work in connection with each other. We all know in the world of HAM, you have people of all kinds of areas of interests. It isn't that it is completely unrelated or otherwise something that can not be employed in connection with HAM radio operations by people. However, this interview was one about introducing two women radio operators and the interviewer took time to cover a little about their background. First, they were interviewed because they have HAM radio licenses and also that they have a notable career background albeit not specifically relating to HAM radio itself. How many HAM radio operators have been interviewed who has basically no background. Sure, we know of some individual HAM radio operators who not done anything significant with their lives that would be of public interest. Jeri Ellsworth has had a significant background in FPGA, ASIC and other chip and electronic design background and it was this background that propelled her career from creating an FPGA based reproduction of the Commodore 64 ( Commodore One, later called C-One Reconfigurable Computer) which continued to propel her career with the development of an single chip (ASIC) based C64 in the form of a Direct to TV joystick (C64DTV) with 30 Commodore 64 games built in but internally, the ASIC was a C64 reproduction with solder pads for numerous I/O lines including the Commodore Serial bus which numerous 'hackers' put together modded C64DTV with the 5-pin DIN connector for the Commodore Serial bus and wired up to the solder pads. These kinds of hacks intentionally facilitated by Jeri's hardware design so that people can use original Commodore disk drives, printers and other peripherals with the C64DTV. This along with other projects allowed her to then land a job at NewTek and eventually at Valve. All the while, she had continued to develop name and recognition in the field. Eventually, she founded Technical Illusions (which later became known as castAR, Inc.) Lets not forget, HAM Radio is with all radio technology is technology and much of the HAM community includes many people with all forms of electronic engineering backgrounds including radio technology. castAR uses light spectrum technology to A) project visual information on a retroreflective surface, B) infrared based technology to track and compute relative position in 3d space. Lets not forget that light including infrared is still technically part of the overall radio spectrum which ranges from frequencies far below the "light spectrum" to far above the light spectrum in terms of frequencies. Perhaps there is a certain aspect of interest this technology may have with some HAMs out their in their broader technology interests. How can we make HAM radio operation meaningful and interesting enough to people that they would bother with the license. There is so much 'spectrum' out there, alot of which is unlicensed that people can do nearly all kinds of stuff with it. A proverbial question that constantly faces the HAM community is how are they going to get their children (and nowadays... often grandchildren or great-grandchildren) interested in HAM. If it is used just to talk and say hello, how is it compelling enough???
While I agree pretty much with your post, one thing to be aware of is that "ham radio" is not capitalized. It's just a word. Not an acronym or an abbreviation. So the use of HAM is not correct, and it looks out of place when used in a ham radio forum. I think you are probably not a ham radio operator, since you don't display a call sign. So it is just something to be aware of, since you do seem to take care in describing things as they should be spelled (castAR, FPGA, DIN, Skype, etc).
Thanks. I currently don't have a ham operator license. Lower case 'ham' reminds me of that delicious pig meat. In some of the circles that I have been in for many years, HAM is an acronym for Hold And Modify which is a video display mode of the Commodore Amiga line of computers. ( Wikipedia reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-And-Modify ---- chosen for a straight forward general description for those who may not possess detailed understanding of the Commodore Amiga line of computers ) Thanks for reminding me of the appropriate way to spell 'ham' when it comes to ham radio.
These Women are brilliant. Jerri is a YouTube Phenom with over 200 videos. She lectures engineering students at Stamford and other engineering schools. She builds her own transistors (really!) They are entrepreneurs (the things I mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg) And most importantly they are Hams. Very interesting people. The interview was impromptu and may have seem disorganized but for such quick decision to interview them, I think it went quite well, and I appreciate Ham Radio Now for interviewing them. I was at the event and was thrilled to meet them. Mike Clay AC5XV
