"Take Your Handheld to Work Day." June 20

Jonathan is all about pointing out issues, but he is never one to offer solutions.

 

Since most HT's are VHF/UHF I doubt anyone farther than 50 miles from Newington would have heard any 'special message'. If there even was one.

I have to question the technical prowess of anyone not in CT actually listening for such a message. First there is the issue of insufficient propagation. Then there is the issue of no time or frequency listing. And how many of the 20,000 or so repeaters in the US and Canada could be worked from CT during lunch hours?

How would it look to people at work if you were playing with the buttons on your HT trying to find a 'special message' that wasn't there. I don't think it would cause the masses to become interested. Instead, it was a ploy by the ARRL to try to make the event work. It amazes me that anyone took the statement seriously.

Some people have made the statement that taking your HT to work is improper, I mean after all, you should be working, right? The idea is to use the workplace as a captive audience for promotion.

I say, why not have a 'Take Your HT to Church Day'? I mean, isn't it church, not work, that is all about sharing and helping and brotherhood and the good of mankind?

Careful though, 440 rigs can bleed over through the church PAs.

 

What is this discussion all about? It appears to me that there is a shift in interest in amateur radio from global/HF communications to ham shack on a belt. Those of us who remember the FCC giving tests feel that we are losing our technical abilities and being dumbed down to a point where we won't have a hobby in 20 years. Now as QCWA eligible this year I am not your typical pre geezer. I can rock with the best of them and know who Tre Cool is. BUT jeez guys come on....have you listened to two meters lately?
From my vantage point in north central Massachusetts I can hear countless emergency and traffic nets. No one has traffic. No one has anything to say other than the occasional in house bulletin. The nets come and go. There are active weather spotting nets that serve a purpose, but it takes so long to get the info passed to controls who are more interested in protocol than substance that it becomes moot.
There are regular ham conversations, too, but each repeater becomes the home of a clique and the conversations long ago passed interesting.
The technical standards have erroded, and that is a gripe of the OT's. I heard a fellow trying to find someone one on a repeater who had 75 meters, so they could "QSY" and he could get a signal report. He had to take his dipole down and send it back to the manufacturer to get repaired...He was using his back up. If you don't understand what I am frustrated with at this point stop reading, and I am sorry I wasted your time.
For the rest of you who only are interested in HT's and VHF and above FM I continue...
This is only a very small part of the hobby and public service is only a small part of that. Explore the rest of what you are missing and then you will see how that REALLY can be of a help when the going gets bad.
Now I am not saying that helping out isn't a bad thing, but technology has made our role communications in local events really unnecessary. Oh yeah there are some things hams have hung on to, but when you look closely it could be done better and quicker by another medium.
When there is a disaster of some magnitude what we really shine at is handling heath and welfare traffic over distances. In this day and age of internet based phone service, our role here is being deminished, but the messages have to get out of the area somehow.
Now I can hear the keyboards being engaged now, but I am talking reality here and not just my own.
Suggestions...sure. Get on the local repeater, find someone to talk to, and don't use one radio catch word. Don't utter a Q signal or say over. Talk about something other than equipment, antennas, and the weather. Try simplex. Don't ID every transmission. Just use your call (the other guy knows his). Pause every so often and ask if someone wants to join you. Try to pick a topic other than religion, politics, or guns...they get their share of air time. Try talking about something you don't usually hear on the radio...that is pretty broad these days. Up grade if necessary and get on HF. Borrow a radio from a geezer...they usually have too many anyhow. Build a dipole fer jeezily sakes.
Anyway those of us who thing the shack on a belt thing is out of hand have some valid suggestions...and the above were mine. Flame on...

 

Good for you!!  And welcome.  Please call me if you hear my callsign on the air (or see it on PSK). I would enjoy chatting and sharing the fascination with direct person-to-person you can't get with those other toys!!!

73   Jim K4JF

 

It was a "corny idea" to begin with!

fni

 

Oh boy, get your asbestos underwear on! You've stomped on all kinds of holies there!

Actually, I thought it was one of the best posts I've seen here, and I wholeheartedly agree! So much that I'm going to save that post and send it to a few ham friends.

I mean, come on people, we bring the propeller hatted geek label upon ourself. Like the guys who say "hi hi" on FM, or even face to face when there's only one other ham in the group of many. Someone did that to me and I just wanted to walk away. Either that or walk up and grab him by the throat and shake violently while screaming "ARE YOU THAT F_ STUPID!!??" Only trouble is he might say yes.

Or the nets that 'practice' 100% on repeaters. People too shortsighted to realize that if there is an 'event', not all the repeaters will stay up, and those that do will be interactive priority handling, like 'go here' or 'check this' kind of stuff. The message handlers that haven't practiced simplex will be TOTALLY out of their element, and will probably turn into an embarassment.

I know hams that don't even know what the simplex frequencies are. Of course, don't blame them totally. ALMOST ALL of the 'simplex' frequecies from 146-148mhz have been given out by shortsighted repeater co-ordinators here in New England who feel we just keep needing that 'one more repeater'. I have a term for those people and it can't display on this forum (one former one who did that actually was a friend, and I called him that term for doing it!)

Hey, I've taken radios to work. I had my Elecraft at work many times, as well as HTs. But I do it with discression. But there's no way I would do it as a 'take a handheld to work' kind of thing.

Sorry, but your post really struck a chord! (By the way, I hit 25 years this year too! I was formerly KA5MJQ)

Mike
N1DVJ

 

I took my handheld to work one time bud didn't hear a thing except the IDer. Called several times but no answer from anyone. The repeater is located in our building, so I knew I was able to hit it. Guess at 0300 in the AM, no one is up to talk to me.

 

I agree, if your embarrased by what you do, then why do it? Most of the people i work with can't even turn the channel on a radio, let alone operate any type of HAM related equipment, quite honestly, they are the stupid dorks, not us.

A lot of people at work call me "Inspector Gadget", when in fact, they can barely understand basic "point and Click" computer operation. At least we are no left behind by technology, thats why we should not be called radio amatuers, when in fact WE ARE THE EXPERTS!

 

My HT is like an American Express Card. NEVER leave home without it.

 

I'm into delivery right now for the summer. As such I have foudn the last few weeks that ham radio or any radio be it ham, cb, scanners or even am/fm keeps me ocupied.

Actually with my porcupine i'm becoming known around town. (wonder why )

Anyway most at work here know I have a radio setup amoung other things in my car. One guy always asks questiosn about radio. An old guys that walks near where I work comemnted on my dual 102" whips for 10/11m. Then he noted my 75m hamstick and asked to listen to 'what that is connected to'.

I let him listen to our net on 3729 expaining propogation the best i know on 80m and he said:

"I got to get me an 80m radio and antenna."

 

I work on a military base and we're not allowed to transmit. So I bring the ol' trunktracker and listen to the air ops guys do their thing on the mil-air band and base security catch bad guys on their trunked system. Hey, you gotta take what you can get for entertainment these days.

 

Didn't do it, owing to the fact that most of 2 Meters in my area is just a few steps above glorified CB Radio, I'll pass on this one thank-you-very-much! Besides, my NEXTEL Talkabout feature is far more useful and has a far greater range and functionality. (this plus the fact also that ham radio is technologically obsolete when compared what is available to the general public for technology today - sorry if this is a shocker folks, but it's the truth.)

Nothing in life is so exhilarating
as to be shot at without result.
- Sir Winston Spencer Churchill,
"The Malakand Field Force"

I'd rather be dead
than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm 45.
- Mick Jagger, "People Weekly", May 2, 1977