Quin Schultze, K8QS, began his ham radio journey as a teenager with modest means and found his calling in college where he majored in communications, leading to a doctoral degree. Through Quin’s looking glass we discuss the uniqueness of our ham radio hobby, the communities that form within it, and the real estate in the ether that we tend while on the air. K8QS is my QSO Today. https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/K8QS
There are different explained situations and experience which are getting similar to mine. Especially the groups in the past. But this still changed and will not come back. Equal how hard we will try. When I remember to groups on the 11M band here, it was more like to visit a pub where some new acquaintance where to find. All stayed on the band. Unfortunately this kind of communication lost more and more importance. And when I take look at some digital rooms at Pi-Star, there was for example the "SoCal Cafe". So this kind of communication is alive, but people forgot to use this daily. And exactly this kind of communication is the magic on the bands. At next to give the hobby a touch of to be godlike, goes much to far. But this is a kind of view. And I believe in nature and the Sun. Today most people like to see another, when they are talking together. So maybe hamradio will get a new kick with an easy ATV at the Ghz bands. But this will not stay for long I think, because the people are at home and they show themselfs in private. And the bands are not really another kind of social media with an overdriven narcissim. These are not the normal operators. This is maybe the next generation. At last is to say, that clubs forms groups which are often counterproductive and against the HAM Spirit. And when groups say and believe in by themself that they are the voice of the hobby, its over.
Very interesting interview. I was on CB when I was a kid before I discovered ham radio, shortly after CB was legalised in the UK. The words of a government Minister when its introduction in the UK was still being resisted are legendary - Lord Wells-Pestell said in Parliament: "We have seriously to consider the enormous disadvantages of having a vast army of people who can communicate with each other very easily." Of course when it was introduced it became the first electronic mass social media and when I see people moaning about issues arising on Twitter etc I think that there are no new problems in the internet age that didn't exist in the previous ones.
This is one of the best interviews and exchange of information I've heard. Simply put we've got to communicate. 73
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of QSO Today. I wish this went on for another hour. I personally don't mind if the interview goes well over the hour mark. Quin thank you for your willingness and your time to do this with Eric, and Eric, from t he bottom of my heart, thank you for what you do with this podcast.
Really enjoyed this interview Eric. I tend to listen to them on my commute to and from work. 73 KC5GOI
Cornelius, thanks so much for your comments. One of the things I learned early in my doctoral program in communication history, thanks to a brilliant professor, was that there are always centrifugal and centripetal forces at work -- simultaneously -- in human media/communication. In other words, people come together and people move apart (or are forced to). So communities form, dissolve, and are reformed in different ways. This is a constant, evolving (and devolving) process. And any attempts by people or institutions, including governments, to hijack the process for their own purposes will eventually be thwarted. And this works at all levels, from local neighborhoods to national states. Social media have made this more complicated, beyond what I can discuss here in a short post. The scholar who first identified this phenomenon, Harold Adams Innis, was Canadian. He looked at the relationship between the US and Canada in terms of communication, and how Canadians did not want to let American media dominate them. I use as an example the growth of cable television's many channels since the 1960s. Some channels have amassed fairly large audiences, but others have attracted very select groups of fans. In the US, AM radio renewed itself in the face of competition from national TV in the 1950s by going more local and, eventually, by developing its new national, talk-oriented networks. Well, the ham radio community is a parallel phenomenon. There are movements toward a stronger community of hams at local, national, and international levels, but at the same time there are counter-movements toward specialization, segmentation, and even "revolution" in the sense of major change. About CB: I travel around the US and beyond quite a bit to lecture at universities. I often listen to local CB and ham frequencies to see how much local activity there is. It varies widely. 73, Quin, K8QS
Indeed. So it is today that many of the more totalitarian governments are being threatened by new media/communication forms/technologies than by weapons. I've been reading books on WWII espionage based on communication. So-called "intelligence" is really information; beyond that, it is even "knowledge." And beyond "knowledge" it is eventually wisdom (which is according to the ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew philosophers a form of applied knowledge based on historical understanding. Many governments around the world today lack the kind of intelligence represented in wisdom. They dwell in meme soup, fostered by Twitter and the like. Quin
Thanks so much, Mark. I hope to meet you at a hamfest or coffee shop in my travels. I will be at HamCation in Florida in a few weeks. Quin
Thanks very much, Guy. Eric is doing a splendid job helping us all understand the hobby the we love. I like the pics on your QRZ page of some of the places you have put on the air. The growth of POTA and similar groups/activities is a perfect example of communication forming community in amateur radio. Quin
My pleasure, Ralph. I love the list of past activities on your QRZ page. Hams are a renaissance group -- you included. Quin
Your kind words mean a lot to me, Mitch. BTW, I taught for four years at Drake University near you. I took the EXTRA exam in about 1980 when the FCC was giving it once or twice a year in Des Moines. 73, Quin
