Quote:
Originally Posted by M6CSS
I'm a young ham from the UK, In a couple of weeks I will be taking my 2E0. I want to get into building equipment for the shack, but I'm not to sure where to start.
Can anyone give me any advice on where to start, what sort of kits could I start with? I'm pretty good with a soldering iron, can do simple DC circuits, but I don't really know where to start with shack gear.
Thanks
|
From the Opus:
Operating Your Station
I mentioned earlier that I have encountered actual people who have never turned a knob. Now I imagine, in the Big Picture of Everything, this may not be too shocking. Mankind’s pre-knob history is probably very long. What really surprises me is that we should ever have a post-knob era. Yet, we seem to have somehow arrived in this sad state of affairs.
A knob is crucially important because it gives you a direct connection between cause and effect. With a knob, you get a comforting sense that what you do has something to do with what gets done. Modern electronics design, with its proliferation of multifunction menus, touch pads, and such, effectively removes this simple relationship, and I’m not totally convinced that this is not entirely unintentional. Knobs allow us to immediately control inanimate objects. Menus, on the other hand, take a message which may or may not ever be delivered to the inanimate object in question.
Automobile makers learned this back in the 1960s. There were several ill-fated experiments with alternatives to steering wheels, because steering wheels were hard objects that you could bang your face on in case of an accident. I suppose they figured it was preferable to bang your face on the other guy’s hood ornament instead. So, they tried out little dash-mounted sliders, side-mounted joysticks, pedals, kneepads, even helmets that steered the car any direction you turned your head—a dazzling success, no doubt—all in the name of getting rid of that obsolete steering wheel. Obviously, as evidenced by the prevalence of steering wheel-less cars we see today, these experiments were a resounding hit with the American driver.
NOT!!!
You see, a steering wheel is intuitive. You know what to do with it the first time you slide into the front seat of a car. A nine-month-old toddler knows what to do with the steering wheel on her pink plastic push trike the first time she straddles the thing. A steering wheel is a no-brainer. As is a KNOB.
Radio manufacturers would do well to remember this. And there really is a lot more at stake than the mere simplicity of the thing, or lack thereof.
The Nature of the Thing
Anything other than a knob on a radio serves to mask the very nature of radio itself. I personally hold the absence of the knob in modern electronics primarily responsible for the scientific ignorance displayed by most modern hams. Again, it’s not their fault; it’s an evil conspiracy. Here’s why.
Radio is a continuum. There are an INFINITE number of radio frequencies in nature. Radio does not come in CHANNELS. It does not come in BITS. It does not come in discrete units of anything. It is a wave. It has an infinite number of possible wavelengths. It has an infinite number of possible power levels. It has an infinite number of possible directions of propagation. It has an infinite number of possible polarizations.
When you turn a knob, you are reminded of this. For decades, the prominent feature on all amateur radios (and commercial radios to some extent) was a LARGE main tuning dial. Sometimes an equally large fine tuning dial. The tuning knob was the steering wheel of the ether. In fact, the main tuning dial on some classic radios closely resembled a steering wheel or a ship’s helm. You knew what to do with it whether or not you had a clue what a radio even was. To eliminate the tuning knob is to eliminate the very essence of radio.
To use our previous terminology, the prominent tuning dial gave the radio amateur the proper parable of the ether. It reflected and translated the nature of the ether to the operator’s grubby mitts. It was the machine in which the ghost could take up residence. It served as the interface between wobbling meat and the singing vacuum of space.
A computer menu does no such thing.
Therefore...
Your number one priority as a new radio amateur is to acquire a radio with KNOBS on it. Beg, borrow or steal, but get a radio with KNOBS. Each knob should have ONE and ONLY ONE function. It should do the same thing every time.
Does the steering wheel on your car serve as a steering wheel on MONDAY, a brake on TUESDAY, and a left turn signal on WEDNESDAY? Of course not! Why should your radio controls be any different? This whole concept of context-based “controls” is anathema...an abomination of the first degree! I don’t usually take personal delight in the fact that there’s a flaming Hell and eternal damnation, but for whoever invented the context-based control, I make one joyful, blissful, ecstatic exception.
We appreciate your support.
Where to Start
Linear Mode
