Ham Radio is "faintly embarrasing?"

The only tme I'm embarrased is when I read Time magazine!

 

Hey W4KHR...

All you need to find a companion is a good ad...something like this..

"Lonely Amateur Radio Operator seeks mate to share ragchews and DX contests with late at night. Let's make some RF and harmonics together. Contact W4KHR. Please send picture of ham rig."

There, see, that's easy!

 

Jeesh you guys have thin skins.  I've been a ham for 35 years, I love the hobby, and became an engineer because of my early involvement with ham radio.  

I will be the first to admit... ham radio is more than a little embarassing.  It is a geek hobby.  So what?

 

What do you expect? At least it's not a PC related response.
AA3WS

 

I have never been a big reader of TIME, and I will not be reading any more of thier magazines. To call this hobby embarrasing is just plain stupid. I guess it was embarrasing for us to offer our communications during 9/11 and in Florida..

As for people thinking bad about our hobby.. the other day I was in a chatroom talking to some of my friends. It is just a general chatroom, but usually the demographic is teenagers 13-18.. the other day I asked someone thier QTH (not expecting anyone to be a radio operator) I had someone say "A ham in the room" and I said yes and asked the guy his callsign.. he said "I don't have one.. I am a free bander" and he said his handle was fishman (or somthing like that) anyways I asked him what kind of gear he used and he don't me he used a modified 10/12 meter ranger radio that puts on 150 watts for his 11 meter DX and get on 10 meters.. when I told him what he was doing was against the law.. and that I hope the FCC catches him one of these days.. another chatter said "What is all this talk about radio, the only radio I know if is the one I listen to in the car" and I started telling the chatter about ham radio.. and the chatter said "Its Gay"... So apparently people don't think very high of this great hobby.. Its sad.. and I just hope that people realize what good we do..

I am about to send Time and email telling them my thoughts towards a comment so wrong..

 

BOY, I just cant take it anymore. Every time there is a controversial thread, President Bush is to blame! Bush is responsible for that article, Bush is to blame for BPL, Bush is the instigator if the "Code-No Code" argument, et.et...Get over it commi-Liberals, you lost, the country is leaning to the right, and your "Great Society" days are over. Go after the real reason for this thread-Time magazine and that Levinson guy..Defend our "Service" and stop bringing your displeasure with politics into Ham Radio. There is a separate board for that. I for one will e-mail Time also, because Im Sooooooooo embarassed. Well, I guess Time Magazine will become extra anal cavity paper at my house..Ken..

 

Dear Editor,

Before this year, blogs were a curiosity, a cult phenomenon, a faintly embarrassing hobby on the order of ham radio and stamp collecting. But in 2004, blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the pantheon of major media, alongside TV, radio and, yes, magazines, and it was Power Line, more than any other blog, that got them there,” writes TIME’s Lev Grossman.

Amateur radio is NOT an embarrassing hobby. Commercial broadcasting has ham radio to thank. Your cell phone... thank a ham. Satellites, yep, thank the hams. Many of the modern day communications devices have thousands and thousands of ham radio operators to thank for their creation and advancement.

Embarrassing is thinking a BLOG is a powerful tool and will change the minds of everyone on the planet.
Embarrassing is only seeing the world on a 15" screen in front of you.
Embarrassing is living your life online and letting your personal life and heath go down the tubes.

I hold three amateur radio licenses (US, Rep of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia), two Army MARS licenses and a commercial radiotelephone license. I have 28 years in the broadcast, communications and defense industry working on transmitters. These transmitters transmit TV, radio, data, satellite, telephone, radar, police and fire and aircraft signal. Where would your career be without them?  What would life be like without them?

Paper doesn't care what you put on it. The media is only as powerful as the number of weak minds which take it as gospel. Talk radio is 3% of the population, mostly white males, who like to listen to themselves talk. Blogs are worthless contributions to society and far from the pantheon you'd like them to be. The cordless drill has done more to improve the lives of many than any BLOG ever will!

By the way, I also collect stamps, SCUBA dive and I am a Private Pilot.

 

Hey all you voices of reason out there... the crybabies ain't listening. Okay, I'm going to type this real slow so everyone will get this: This is just a hobby! Get over it already!

Jeesh!!!

 

Guys, there is another way to fight this Grossman article. Contact the Blog that won the Blog of the Year. These guys are actually calling Lev a hero to Journalism. They should be more responsible and appreciate what HAM radio operators do for the community, and at least defend us publically. Time is not going to do anything, turn the blog against time by commenting the crap out of the blog of the year acceptance posting they have put up. There is nothing worse for the blog than bad publicity via comments....trust me, as a blog owner comment spam is horrible to deal with, especially when it is NOT SPAM, but real comments from real people.

Bernard
KC2NKL

 

... for those that are telling us to get over it.. well the big deal is that saying the hobby is embarrassing is giving hams negative exposure. The general public is not aware of amateur radio and what good it does. We need postitive exposure..

 

- it's yellow, isn't it?

 

I agree with everyone in the fact that HAM radio is needed and I am very proud to be a member of such a fine group of people who in the most part are professional and care about the future of HAM radio, but also I do have to agree that is is rather embarrassing when you tune to 14.272 or 14.275 and listen even for a few min. This kind of activity is embarrassing to the entire HAM community and a slap in the face of each and every Ham operator who really cares about the hobby when activity that is displayed by these operators are allowed to continue. I can understand why a person such as Lev Grossman would make such a comment. It appears to me we need to police ourselves and rid the HAM community of the few meaningless persons who are embarrassing all of the operators who truly do care and provide the needed assistance when called upon..

 

The color of snow is ROYGBIV

 

Who cares what Time Magazine has to say?  It is now, and always has been, nothing more than an up-scale tabloid.  

As for the hobby being "embarrassing," that's OK with me.  There are lots of hobbies that are equally embarrassing.  For example:  basket collecting, square dancing and Hummel collecting.  But, just like hams, people who engage in these pastimes can provide a wealth of related, interesting facts and stories when asked.  I've received a few strange looks and comments when I've told people that I'm a ham radio operator.  I often get the question, "So is that just CB radio?"  When I explain, or better yet, show them the shack, they seem to think better of the hobby.  When I tell them that I like to operate CW, they're often amazed.  ("So you can really understand all those dots and dashes without writing much down?")  

-Dave, K3WQ

 

Why do we so vehemently deny this perception?

It is, unfortunately, a common perception among non-hams. It's going to take a heck of a lot more than an (unpublished) letter in TIME to reverse it.

We are a fragmented group, with too much self-indulgency and activism tarnishing the public service and enhancing technology aspects.

Most people still see hams as Herman Munstster sitting behind a bunch of glow bugs with a Jacob's ladder buzzing away...

How are YOU using ham radio today to make wireless better? I'm working on a new HF antenna. Others are passing health and welfare messages to the WAVE calamity areas.

..and you're writing a huffy letter to TIME?

Think about it...

73,
Chip N1IR