The Inevitable Death of Ham Radio

I hope this doesn't sound too critical, but you might have posted a link to the original posting on eHam. There were a lot of great comments, many of which I expect will be repeated here.

 

Interesting. However can you take your Treo 600, make an antenna for it, Run the feedlines, make the power supply, calibrate it and shoot the single from your QTH to wherever w/o paying someone to hook you through? I think not. This hobby is far from going away. Not in my lifetime anyway and I hope to help keep it going.

I suggest everyone pick up a book, go buy some parts, and BUILD BUILD BUILD!

 

All I can say is wow! Not good

 

someday we shall see that some huge EMP will destroy all this fancy solid state type gear. than those using the old tube stuff will be needed. i dread the thought of that day but one nice size electro magntetic pulse. good very well bring the end of modern comuincations as we know it. now if i could only spell we be in great shape. you wouldnt beleave i am married to a teacher with 10 years colledge would ya

 

Amateur Radio will change, But I don't believe for a second that it will die. There is no replacement for the ionosphere, and our ability to operate outside of an existing infrastructure. Next time a disaster hits, try hooking up a piece of wire to the back of your PC (not one that is SDR enhanced, because then it would be a radio) and see how far you'll get on the internet. We may lose some spectrum, and have to share more limited frequencies, but a slot will be there for us Hams, at least for the next 20-30 years. And if by slim chance we are shut down, I'll move to a 3rd world country that still relies on HF/VHF/UHF because they're too poor for anything else. 73.

 

I beg to differ. I was in Punta Gorda just a few days after Charlie. I was with the Red Cross not as a ham but as a driver for a truck loaded with supplies. I had to drive around looking for damage, then give the people the stuff I had on the truck.

Anyway, I took along my Icom V8000 and mobile antenna. While I was in the truck, this radio was on and tuned into the net control frequency. There was non-stop traffic on the net. My phone did not always work because I ventured away from US-41 and all the emergency cell phone trucks. My Icom always worked. If I needed to reach the Red Cross HQ or FEMA, I could have.

The majority of the big guns were on US-41. There were cell phone tower trucks, satellite phone trucks, internet access trucks - you name it. But away from the highway, in trailer park land, people were still fairly isolated. No car and you were stuck.

I will agree that the role of ham radio in emergency communications is less than what it used to be, but it is not dead yet. You can cover small areas with cell phone tower trucks, but it is hard to cover all of FL from the Gulf Coast, through Orlando, then to the East Coast. When there are multiple hits, like this year, commercial resources are stretched thin.

Also, ham radio is still important for non-emergency, community service type communications. Just last weekend, I used my boat to provide communications for a small kayak race that benefited the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Stuff like this can still be used as ammo to keep spectrum.

-- James KF4OUI

 

While I don't think ham radio is going to die, I do think that the rationale that we provide critical emergency aid is kind of outdated, for all the reasons stated by the original article. True, there are still situations where cell phones won't cut it, but they are few and far between.

To say that we'll lose all our frequencies and die just because we can't justify ourselves as the best emergency comm network around is false though. Look at CB -- lots of foul language and behavior, no organized emergency aid nets, and certainly no contribution to the "state of the art" in radio. But nobody has shut them down. Worst case, we become another CB service. But I don't see that happening.

And amateur radio does contribute in small ways to expanding the state of the art in electronics and communications. I can speak firsthand that many engineers and some scientists are hams, many of their motivations and ideas come from having played with electronics. I think it would be stupid for the US government to ever decide to shut it all down just because the Red Cross has a lot of satellite trucks and there are too many cell phones!

People were yelling about the demise of this hobby 20 years ago when I got into it, and they still are. Yet, here it still is.

 

A clue that might be worth watching is the decision the FCC will make regarding the morse code requirement for HF. If in fact the FCC wants our frequencies for other uses, then they will NOT want to increase the number of people using these frequencies now. Therefore, they will not adopt a no-code policy....and the number of amateurs will continue to decline until there will be no one left to complain.

 

I am actually amazed that we have not lost more spectrum to business as it is. After all... money rules. I think amateure radio makes a big mistake of always using the emergency trump card. What we need more of, is public service work. Hepling with communications at parades, local marathons and triatholon type events, skywarn, special olympics. If we want to keep our frequencies, we need to be doing a lot of this sort of thing year round, every year, and gget our names and pictures in the papers and on tv news doing it.

That does not mean to say that emergency communications should not be promoted too, but we need more of the other.

our local club in Grand Rapids, Mn. is very active with skywarn, Forget-me-not Foundation (works with handicapped people using horses) fishing events for the handicapped, communications for local snowmobile club when they raise money for food shelf during their radar runs, local marathons and so on. We do try to get our name in the press for doing thses things. It is not about ego or needing some one to pat us on the back, but we are creating a lot of goodwill.

We are also active Emergency wise. We have a wonderful working relationship with the county sheriff Departement and the area coordinator for homeland security. Homeland security just bought vhf radios, antennas and power suplies for eleven hospitals in north east minnesota. It is the first time all these hospitals have had real time direct communications with one another. We have had 2 drills this year and ALL the athoritys are very impressed with what we were able to do.

So amateur radio dieing??? no... not yet. But we need to be out there more in the public eye doing community service, or I can see a day when it will happen.

 

Let us not forget about International good will as well.

Let us hope that the US will be willing to make a small investment of spectrum, to help fellowship, and goodwill to other nations.

I admit that communications have greatly improved over the last 30 years, cell phones, internet, availability of FRS and GMRS radios, internal radios for different organizations, etc.

I think that there are still some times when only we can help out.

A few years ago, a bunch of hams near Eastern Illinois University helped them do something that would still be difficult today to accomplish as good as well did it!

They had a series of 'events' going on at the same time for a Science Triathalon. There were Model Rockets in one area outside, a bridge building competition in one building, and a computer programing competition in another building. They needed to have all of the results quickly entered into a database, to compute score, and winners for prizes to be awarded immediately after the events were over.

I wrote a program in Quick BASIC, and we had several portable packet systems set up. Each ham operator at each event had a 2 meter voice radio, and a 440 packet radio. So each operator could send the info of the packet, and it was automatically entered into the database, no retyping which could have introduced errors in the data.

They also had voice comms in case of some malfunction, but since each location had 2 operators, and 2 setups, we had built in redundancy.

Everything went off without a hitch, and we were asked to come back 2 more years after that. The instructor that did the Science Triathalon decided not to do it anymore, and so we were no longer needed. But I still think back to the first time, and how I only had 2 weeks to learn Quick BASIC, I already knew BASIC, write a complex program to input data from multiple TNC's at the same time, testing, and testing, and testing it again, as we couldn't fail and let down the 1000 kids that would be participating, and all of the operators in town setting up portable packet stations with battery power, and testing those too.

It is probably one of my fondest memories from the first few years as a ham. And it was a great way to talk about ham radio with kids that already had interest in the sciences!

I wonder if any of those kids ever got their license after their initial inspirations of ham radio that day. I know I was asked about how it worked at least 50 times that first day.

I HOPE that ham radio stick around for a long time.

73 from Baghdad,

YI9OQT / N9OQT

And Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Joe,
In some respects, I see your point & understand why you might feel frustrated. The incidents you describe are somewhat disturbing, but keep in mind that when all else fails, we will be there, radios at the ready. Referencing KF4OUI's posting, the commercial emergency communications equipment will always be placed in an area that will help the most people: high traffic highways & urban areas. The more isolated areas are almost always the last to regain utility services; that's where we come in. The United States has far more rural areas than urban, prime locations for ARES and RACES groups to participate.

As a participant in many emergency weather nets in the midwest, I can state that without a doubt the Weather Service needs us. Tornados, funnell clouds and other severe weather can be masked from radar by heavy precipitation and even incidences of odd propagation. The government and public at large rely on weather spotters to do their jobs. Are they needed every single time they are called out? Absolutely not. Do they feel their time is wasted? In most cases not.

This is just not right. Here are some examples of contributions being made through or because of ham radio: high-speed spread-spectrum communication; APRS; Propagation research (PropNet); space communications; etc...

The long and the short of it is this... ham radio isn't going away in our lifetimes. We are needed... No, not every day, or for every emergency. We are society's CYA plan. When all else fails, we will be there, talking to the world.

73's and happy Thanksgiving, all.
Ken - KC7RAD

 

I see a delcine also, I am a new ham (15 yrs old!), every one in my high school has a cell phone, no one is interested, becuase A: too geeky, well first off, ya it may be a little "geeky" but after oyu do it, its freaking amazing how much fun it is!!! sure, they can log onto AIM, I do, but look im on HF talking with a complete stranger 1300 miles away, making a new friend, sure, he/she is bound to be about 20 years older than me but who cares, im still waiting to meet a younger ham. i think cell phones and the internet is "declining" if you will, our hobby. But i see another problem, I see that there are alot of people who are losing the want to be on the "smarter" crowd, not as in good grades, im talking about tuning up on the cw and pumping away, no its too hard, heck some younger poeple dont think about taking the test because we need to study for it. im my mind it is sad, and hey, im not a 60 yr old complaining about the lack of knowlege & interest in the younger groups in ham radio, i am part of the younger group. I want the younger people to get into ham radio, but i think all this funding for youth awareness of ham radio isnt being targeted right, personaly, i see the need for mabey a really big new program, mabey a AIM type thing, but we already have that, ecept its not as easy as clicking on the net, and you would have to follow rules and cant use bad language. i see some of the people not wanting to follow that. i think that we need to target the older people, the ones that are not captivated by the neat ringtones and Oh My God! i can take a picture on my phone, my generation will grow up in the next 15 years, and hey guess what, i think alot people will get bored with the ringtones and heck, buy a real digital camera! sure, i also support the advertisement for kids, there is a friend that is slightly interested in radio, but seems like hes more into the schematics and learn how to fix electronics than talk on the radio, its a start.

personaly, where do most kids shop, wal-mart right? what if walmart had a big radio section, all those neat cases with flashing buttons and the promise of talking 1000's of miles, do you think more people would be involved? or heck, at least understand the hobby better?if the big-guns of dept-stores wer the jump on the radio wagon, i think there would be more interest. look at mcdonalds, they target the kids, no you dont see a 1/1000000 of the ads in a magazine, and heck most arnt ing the food magazines, they are in the tv ads for the tv shows that target the crowd they are looking for. think marketing... how do we "sell" ham radio?

 

This afternoon and evening 21 hams in this county received 24 different pagings from the local Emergency Management director as severe thunderstorm watches and tornado warnings were issued. He relied upon our information to advise most local industries through seek shelter advisories, although two of the largest industries, Cummins Engine Company and Arvin Industries, liasoned with us through their own Ham employee emergency communications teams.

Simultaneous with the EM director's first pagings, our local severe weather net was activated at the direct request of the National Weather Service, which continued to issue spotter requests and receive spotter reports via Amateur Radio equipment installed at the regional NWS office throughout the opeartion. NWS warnings were issued in "downwind" counties as a direct result of the information we provided, just as warnings had been issued for our counties from data provided by Hams in "upwind" counties. In this county we operated a total of 130 minutes before NWS told us we could stand down.

What's this about no more need for emergency response via Amateur Radio?

 

I don't believe that ham radio is dying I am a 16yearold amateur radio opperator I have been liscensed since 14. i am an active homebrewer I love to build things. People talk about how computers are taking over well we wouldn't have computers if it wern't for some hams that got together in the seventies and helped prototype the first computers. I do agree however that more young people like myself need to be actively involved in ham radio.