Ham Radio is "faintly embarrasing?"

I'm going to with hold judgement on this at this time since they seem to be printing letters from the opposing side now.

John/N2NH

 

I have sent a letter to the edit noting that I am not embarassed to be a ham. I dont care if they print my letter or not. But they need to know Amateur Radio is a proud tradition. I also noted the over 2000 articles in the Time archive that speak to the good things done by hams.

 

Nothing says that writers have to read the magazines they write for.

 

Ignorance is embarrassing....
Mr. Grossman is ignorant....ergo..
Mr. Grossman is embarrassing.

 

I wonder is Mr. Grossman has any children or grandchildren fighting in the war? It sounds very unlikely or he would appreciate HF/VHF/UHF communications more readily, especially those modes that do not rely on intermediate relay stations like telephones or satellite phones.

I am proud to be a ham and I spend 99% of my time experimenting with pactor which I found to be the most useful propagation research tool. I find it very gratifying that every time I post a new propagation research page on my web site, I get hits such as the following:

navy.mil
af.mil
usmc.mil
army.mil
soc.mil
uscg.mil
centcom.mil
whmo.mil
disa.mil
pentagon.mil
senate.gov
house.gov

and the list goes on. Propagation research is one of the more important aspects of ham radio and our hobby is obviously assisting in the war effort to minimize casulties. In case you don't recognize whmo.mil, look for it using google.

Ed AE4TM

 

A certain poster claims he is working on Part 15 devices. He doesn't say what Part 15 devices and has yet to elaborate on this. According to the ARRL, BPL is regulated under Part 15 and they say:

---Excerpted Text Begins---
The present FCC Part 15 limits, with which BPL must comply, are set with short-duration and narrowband emissions in mind. Such emissions, like those from a garage door opener, have a small potential to cause harmful interference. The same limits cannot be applied to long-duration, broadband emissions without greatly increasing the risk of harmful interference. At existing FCC Part 15 rules limits, BPL signals radiated from these power lines have a significant potential for interfering with nearby radio receivers. Tones or noise radiated from the BPL system will obscure the radio signals one would normally hear. Has the interference potential been proven? The ARRL laboratory has made observations of BPL radiation at a number of trial areas. The lab’s findings of interference and related information are available on the Web at www.arrl.org/bpl. There have been other observations of radio-frequency interference at BPL test sites in the US and are a matter of public record in ET Docket No. 04-37. An April 27, 2004 report released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) acknowledges that BPL signals “unintentionally radiate” from power lines. The NTIA also said current FCC Part 15 measurement techniques may “significantly underestimate” peak BPL field strength and that “interference risks are high under existing FCC Part 15 rules."
===End of Excerpted Text===

Is this why this person doesn't want anybody to complain?? It would be nice if this person would elaborate, but he has yet to.

From the ARRL page on BPL.

 

Hi all hams,

I'm very proud to be a ham radio operator. I bust my rear in propagation studies by using my ham radio and no joke, the work is hit by the DOD every day - including the White House!

As for another matter, NEVER SAY YOU'RE EMBARASSED TO BE A HAM. A good friend of mine died on Feb 1st, 2003 when STS-107 burned up on reentry. Of all the human beings on the planet I can truly say she "KC" was the friendliest person I ever knew. Thanks NASA for allowing your astronauts to carry HT's whenever possible. I certainly wish you could have allowed this on STS-107. Life is very precious and two of the hams on this mission obtained their ham licenses just to be able to talk to their American companions when passing over the US during their off hours. Gene and Chris, please allow our future astronauts to carry ham radios to allow those well earned astronauts the ability to have QSO's with their supporting comrads on earth.

My dear friend "KC" KD5ESI will always be remembered by my family, especially by my wife who was born near her home town. She will never be forgotten. There were two other hams on this mission whom I didn't know but I know they obtained their ham licenses just for this mission. Allow them to carry HT's on mission STS-108.

Ed - a good friend of Sparkie who helped establish the NASA communications system. 73!

 

Suggesting that Time should never have printed Mr. Grossman's slighting comment is silly - he has First Amendment rights, too, and is just as entitled to share his stupid @#$% opinion as any of us.  

 

As I have said before in this thread, things like:

Swiss Bell Ringing
Yodeling
Curling
Arena Football
Mud Wrestiling
etc.

Now those are MORE than faintly embarassing.

Remember, when the Hurricane hits, you will be the one that still has communication. Nextel Push-to-Talk will become Nextel dead silence.

Dennis

 

Dear Time:

The following is a list of things that embarrass me more than being a Ham Radio Operator:

1) Forgetting to zip up my fly
2) "Tooting" in a crowded elevator
3) The dreaded "TP" stuck to my shoe
4) Forgetting to tie my shoes and falling down flat on my face in front of a few hundred people.
5) The dreaded "just took a sip of something, laughed, and had said liquid flow out of my nostrils"

I have a funny feeling most of your readers, and non-readers, would agree.  I don't find being a radio operator nearly as embarrasing as the things I have listed, and I have a feeling that I am missing plenty more that have happened to me and others in real life.

Speaking of being "faintly embarrasing" because I choose to not use "modern forms of technology" to communicate all the time, why do you still choose to print a magazine with news items that, alas, most of us read using the modern technology called the internet over 5 days before your magazine arrives via US Mail?

This is the kind of questions that me, an embarrased ham, ponder and wonder about.  No wonder why I don't get any sleep anymore.  I guess I'm just so embarrased I worry about it all the time.....NOT.


73, Joshua KD6NIG

 

Dennis, truer words were never said.

 

600,001

 

Ham Radio is Faintly embarrasing

I take back my last post about never seeing any girls that don't have moustaches at hamfests. I was at breezeshooters in pennsylvania this last weekend and there were several cute girls... None of them were hams but they were there with their boyfriends and dads... This year was good. This one girl was realllly hot and so was her mum. 73s take care