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the FCC cans CW requirments

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LAN_403

rev

Wed Dec 20 2006, 12:10PM

Registered Member #112 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 01:19AM
Location:
Posts: 48

now i can finaly get my ham license. and the rest of you americans too. no more excuses!

Chris Russell

Wed Dec 20 2006, 11:03PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

That's a shame. I hope they at least beef up the tests and make them more difficult, to compensate.

Dave Marshall

Wed Dec 20 2006, 11:48PM

Registered Member #16 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 02:22PM
Location: New Wilmington, PA
Posts: 554

I'm not sure exactly what to think about this. I feel like it will be a boon to people like my Dad that have alot of difficulty with morse code, but are quite proficient in electronics.

At the same time, I fear that alot of the 'hat' community who have this far been restricted to VHF or CB will now flood onto the HF bands.

We'll see, but now my Dad and a couple friends have no excuse for not getting their license.

Dave

Chris Russell

Thu Dec 21 2006, 12:21AM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

I think it will be good and bad, in the long run. We certainly need more people in the hobby. We face new threats all the time, and it would be nice if hams made up more than a very tiny minority. It would also be nice to bring more resources to ham radio. Think of all the new digital modes that have yet to be invented, or of all the new, fancy equipment that will result from an increase in demand. On the other hand, we will definitely be seeing more asshats on the bands. It's already getting pretty common to see people whose speech processors are cranked way too high, or people who are overmodulating the hell out of their radios on digital modes. Not to mention people who force eachother off frequencies during crowded band conditions, or do other rude things. This will be a challenging time for hams everywhere... what will we do with this influx? Will we be able to channel it into something productive, maybe even cause sort of a ham radio renaissance? Or will we be overwhelmed by a lot of new operators who fail to respect the hobby, turning the bands into little more than CB?

No way out now. No-code extra class is here!

Steve Conner

Thu Dec 21 2006, 09:20AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

We've had no-code for a couple of years now. Civilisation didn't collapse. The local 2m repeaters have been full of people who just "graduated" from CB for as long as I can remember (about 10 years)

I think HF will always be more exclusive, even without code, because you need the resources to build a large antenna raised high off the ground, tune and direct it properly, and operate a high powered amp. If you don't have a big station, and an understanding of propagation (what bands to use at what times of day/year) you can goof off all you like because nobody can hear you, except your neighbours who will kill you because of TVI.

Of course, that could just be due to us being at a sunspot minimum just now

I've heard older hams claim to have worked the world with 5 watts (tube of course) and a piece of damp string for an antenna.

Dave: I think all threats to ham radio pale into insignificance compared to cell phones and the Internet

I remember years ago, I met Hilary Clayton-Smith who was the head of the RSGB at the time. She told me that numbers of hams were falling rapidly, and since I was about to leave school and go to university, it was my duty to start a ham radio club at uni. I tried, but nobody wanted to join. I ended up selling all my radio gear and letting my licence lapse. I only just got back into it, partly because of chatting with Chris and Dave, and partly because it seemed like a logical progression from Tesla coiling. Tesla was trying to build radio transmitters, after all, and the sparks were just a side effect.

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Thu Dec 21 2006, 08:46PM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

You don't need any rig for Skype, and I think its an awsome utility. It's so much fun talking with people on your own little radio station without the cost of the radio.

Chris Russell

Fri Dec 22 2006, 04:38AM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

Apples and oranges, really. Skype is fine for talking to people, and if that what you're interested in, Skype is probably what you want to use. However, Skype isn't really something that you can be passionate about. It's a utility, very much like a telephone.

Let's face it, you're not going to build your own Skype rig out of scavenged components, and have it fit in an Altoids tin and run off a 9V. You don't even have to know what a resistor is to use Skype. You're not going to string up an antenna of your own design to use Skype. You probably wont have to string up much more than a microphone cable. Likewise, you're not going to try to bounce your Skype packets off the ionosphere, or off a meteorite's ionization trail, or off the moon. You're not going to use Skype to relay health and welfare messages out of a disaster area, to let people know their loved ones are alive. You're not going to stay up for 24 hours with other Skype operators, as part of a contest to test your mettle as a Skype operator. You're not going to have your Skype conversation briefly interrupted by a guy in Africa who wonders what kind of setup you have, because you're booming into his location. If none of that stuff appeals to you, then Skype is for you. But all in all, it's really no substitute for the real thing.

rev

Fri Dec 22 2006, 04:52AM

Registered Member #112 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 01:19AM
Location:
Posts: 48

Chris Russell wrote ...

That's a shame. I hope they at least beef up the tests and make them more difficult, to compensate.

thats fine with me. but to expect me to be a d/a and a/d converter is asking to much.

Steve Conner

Fri Dec 22 2006, 09:41AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Hazmatt, that's kind of the point. Ham radio isn't about communicating with people. If you want to do that, just use Skype or your cell phone or whatever, it's far more reliable and convenient. The point of ham radio is to play with radios and their accessories, and in doing that to learn about radio technology, electronics, and information theory. If you aren't interested in how radio equipment works, and how radio waves behave, then you'll not see any point in it, and that's fine.

Of course, that's just the way I see it. There are plenty of people who just buy all their gear, and organisations like Raynet (and the US equivalent, I forget what it's called) that use ham radio to provide comms at public events and in emergencies, and people who just like to natter.

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