Author Topic: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?  (Read 250530 times)

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Telequipment

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #125 on: July 08, 2013, 03:00:04 pm »
 And  here ,they should just get on with it, with this week off I'm loving the time on the radio.
Paul de M0BSW
 

Telequipment

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #126 on: July 08, 2013, 03:13:18 pm »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

No, it is significantly different compared to the thing on the wall. And I am not talking about the technology.

With the wall-thingy you actually don't call a person, you call a place and hope the desired person happens to be around. With a cell phone you call a person, not a place. To throw a buzzword around, that is a massive paradigm shift.

Quote
My question is still,why should Ham Radio have to prove its relevance?

Because hams claim they are relevant and superior. I have had countless events since my youth where hams tried to shove their alleged superiority in my face along the line of "move over, here comes the ham", "hams are the better persons", "only hams can do electronics" and whatnot. So put up or shut up.
Well I'm sorry you met such people , you won't get that with me, I only mention it when someone asks advice  or I know I'm talking to another ham , then talk a bit of shop, I remember going to a rally, where this sales man was trying to impress me with some piece of gear, he never got to find out I  am a licensed ham, in fact he very much put me off buying it. by saying things like, if you took your licence then you could use this, "oh" I said "how would I do that", my friend who stood there with me was laughing, as he  is a Ofcom officer on interference and radio, he was laughing, because this idiot should have asked me if I was licensed first, then  on asking I would have told him my call sign and all the Nov's I have. As for Electronics , I'm still learning, and have a lot more interest in it now I'm older.
So this is just to let you know, even people like me , come into contact with morons to , like the sales person.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2013, 03:16:54 pm by Telequipment »
 

Offline jancumps

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #127 on: July 08, 2013, 04:10:48 pm »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

No, it is significantly different compared to the thing on the wall. And I am not talking about the technology.

With the wall-thingy you actually don't call a person, you call a place and hope the desired person happens to be around. With a cell phone you call a person, not a place. To throw a buzzword around, that is a massive paradigm shift.

Quote
My question is still,why should Ham Radio have to prove its relevance?

Because hams claim they are relevant and superior. I have had countless events since my youth where hams tried to shove their alleged superiority in my face along the line of "move over, here comes the ham", "hams are the better persons", "only hams can do electronics" and whatnot. So put up or shut up.
Well I'm sorry you met such people , you won't get that with me, I only mention it when someone asks advice  or I know I'm talking to another ham , then talk a bit of shop, I remember going to a rally, where this sales man was trying to impress me with some piece of gear, he never got to find out I  am a licensed ham, in fact he very much put me off buying it. by saying things like, if you took your licence then you could use this, "oh" I said "how would I do that", my friend who stood there with me was laughing, as he  is a Ofcom officer on interference and radio, he was laughing, because this idiot should have asked me if I was licensed first, then  on asking I would have told him my call sign and all the Nov's I have. As for Electronics , I'm still learning, and have a lot more interest in it now I'm older.
So this is just to let you know, even people like me , come into contact with morons to , like the sales person.
Well I'm sorry you met such people , you won't get that with me, I only mention that I'm a sales man when...



 

Telequipment

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #128 on: July 08, 2013, 04:24:43 pm »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

No, it is significantly different compared to the thing on the wall. And I am not talking about the technology.

With the wall-thingy you actually don't call a person, you call a place and hope the desired person happens to be around. With a cell phone you call a person, not a place. To throw a buzzword around, that is a massive paradigm shift.

Quote
My question is still,why should Ham Radio have to prove its relevance?

Because hams claim they are relevant and superior. I have had countless events since my youth where hams tried to shove their alleged superiority in my face along the line of "move over, here comes the ham", "hams are the better persons", "only hams can do electronics" and whatnot. So put up or shut up.
Well I'm sorry you met such people , you won't get that with me, I only mention it when someone asks advice  or I know I'm talking to another ham , then talk a bit of shop, I remember going to a rally, where this sales man was trying to impress me with some piece of gear, he never got to find out I  am a licensed ham, in fact he very much put me off buying it. by saying things like, if you took your licence then you could use this, "oh" I said "how would I do that", my friend who stood there with me was laughing, as he  is a Ofcom officer on interference and radio, he was laughing, because this idiot should have asked me if I was licensed first, then  on asking I would have told him my call sign and all the Nov's I have. As for Electronics , I'm still learning, and have a lot more interest in it now I'm older.
So this is just to let you know, even people like me , come into contact with morons to , like the sales person.
Well I'm sorry you met such people , you won't get that with me, I only mention that I'm a sales man when...
Youre a saleman ,then defend your self, because I don't have a lot of time for salesmen, prove to me your worth.
 

Offline xrunnerTopic starter

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #129 on: July 08, 2013, 06:00:14 pm »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

Really? Really? You make me LOL.



Quote

Skype is basically a way to get cheap phone calls using the Internet---interesting & fun?

Yea - considering it has video too. Yea it's interesting and fun. Again I LOL'ed at your post.

« Last Edit: July 08, 2013, 06:02:36 pm by xrunner »
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Offline xrunnerTopic starter

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #130 on: July 08, 2013, 06:01:48 pm »
Many Young People have an interest in anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, collectivism etc. and some of them might be uncomfortable with their conversations being relayed through billions of dollars of equipment belonging to The Man. Granted, one needs to initially get a license from The Man, ...

Well if that's the case, then nobody's stopping them from just buying equipment and using it without a license. You don't have to prove you have a license to buy ham equipment.
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #131 on: July 09, 2013, 07:35:54 am »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

Really? Really? You make me LOL.

Quote
Oh,sure,you can take pictures with a smartphone,use it as a half-arsed computer,& lots of other great stuff,but in the context I was referring to,it is a phone!

Why,with all those capabilities do people spend most of their time texting?
Kids sit about a metre apart & text each other---great DX!! ROFLMAO!

Actually.one thing about smartphones  which is good,is that they have proper (if pretend)  QWERTY keyboards,instead of  the old "Ma Bell" keys,making it a lot easier to text.
Apart from that,they are oversized clunky things compared to the previous generation of cellphones.


Skype is basically a way to get cheap phone calls using the Internet---interesting & fun?

Yea - considering it has video too. Yea it's interesting and fun. Again I LOL'ed at your post.



Videophones are great,whether Skype or dedicated systems,but I have noticed over the years that people
enjoy the novelty for a while,then go back to ordinary phone calls.
It's nice to see Auntie's face when you talk to her,but is it worth the clunky interface,& Auntie's lack of skills as an on-air personality?

Many ex hams make the mistake of going with a 2m or dual band HT when they return to the fold.
The heyday of 2m & 70cm repeaters is gone,so it can be pretty boring.

There are a lot of other aspects,such as HF,digital,satellite coms,aircraft enhancement,& many others.

In front of me,as I write,is the July issue of "Amateur Radio " magazine  which reports,& I quote, in part :

On May 23rd,Andreas DJ5AR & Jan PA3FXB succeeded in making contact on 23cm via reflection from the ISS.
Both stations used three metre dishes tracking the ISS with Andreas running 100 w,& Jan with 375w.


No repeaters or translators,just reflection!-----Try that  with your smartphone! ;D
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #132 on: July 09, 2013, 09:09:03 am »
A cellphone is a phone!--exactly like the old black Bakelite thing on the wall back in the day!

No, it is significantly different compared to the thing on the wall. And I am not talking about the technology.

With the wall-thingy you actually don't call a person, you call a place and hope the desired person happens to be around. With a cell phone you call a person, not a place. To throw a buzzword around, that is a massive paradigm shift.
I'll remember that,next time I get shunted off to Voicemail!
The "paradigm shift" is not relevant in the context of my comment---the key word is "random",so it wouldn't matter to me,who answered,or if nobody did.
Hams call "CQ" plenty of times without result.


Quote
My question is still,why should Ham Radio have to prove its relevance?

Because hams claim they are relevant and superior. I have had countless events since my youth where hams tried to shove their alleged superiority in my face along the line of "move over, here comes the ham", "hams are the better persons", "only hams can do electronics" and whatnot. So put up or shut up.

Agreed,some Hams are a pain in the bum!
This is how bigotry is created-------some people of a group upset you,& that means everybody of that group are the same.
On that basis,a reader of this forum,by reading postings from me & your goodself,could form the opinion that members of this forum are all self-opinionated old farts! ;D
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 02:50:14 am by vk6zgo »
 

Offline GK

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #133 on: July 09, 2013, 11:11:11 am »
not sure if Morse code is still a requirement


No, not anymore. It's been dropped for an number of years now, AFAIK.
Oh good, I don't think it is a requirement over here in the UK anymore, may be wrong , it's been so long since I did it, for me it was the biggest obstacle, only determination pulled me through, and never used it since I passed.


Yes, I'm quite glad it is no longer required as that is one tedious thing I do not have to bother with to get my ticket. It is still something I'd like to learn though, one day, as I've got a half dozen Morse keys as a lot of my transmitters have CW facilities.

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Offline GK

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #134 on: July 09, 2013, 11:14:40 am »
So who else has one of these room heaters in their shack then?

http://www.users.on.net/~glenk/ctm2k/ctm2k.htm

 ;D

With some modification I think it will be just the ticket for getting closer than most to that elusive 1W ERP legal limit on 2200m.

 
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Telequipment

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #135 on: July 09, 2013, 11:50:27 am »
So who else has one of these room heaters in their shack then?

http://www.users.on.net/~glenk/ctm2k/ctm2k.htm

 ;D

With some modification I think it will be just the ticket for getting closer than most to that elusive 1W ERP legal limit on 2200m.
I wish
 

Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #136 on: July 09, 2013, 11:53:59 am »
So who else has one of these room heaters in their shack then?

That is truly awesome.    :-+

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #137 on: July 09, 2013, 12:55:24 pm »
So who else has one of these room heaters in their shack then?

A friend of mine owns and operates a genuine Racal 1KW shortwave transmitter of roughly the same size. Uses three 4-250A tetrodes in parallel in the final, and covers 3-22 MHz or so. I once helped move it, and we had to dismantle the different parts, particularly the PSU, in order to do so. When the PSU 19" 'drawer' was fully assembled, it took four of us to lift it about 10 cm off the floor in order to place it on its slide-out rails. :phew:
 

Offline GK

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #138 on: July 10, 2013, 03:11:54 am »
The old stuff for continuous duty, broadcast use, where reliability was important, was generally over engineered; big heavy, sometimes hugely over-rated transformers in the power supplies.
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Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #139 on: July 10, 2013, 05:39:48 am »
Well, the excessive LC filtering of even the HT rail for the finals certainly didn't help with keeping the PSU weight down... :)

On the other hand, then it seems to me that some of the RF gear made for hams tend to be a bit on the ... 'flimsy' side, considering the claimed specs. Conversely, a healthy dose of over-engineering has been a proud tradition for decades among many hams, who scratch build their own gear. I am certainly not surprised that my friend has hung on to his Racal monster for this many years, as many among the experienced operators end up with building similar sized DIY contraptions.
 

Offline xrunnerTopic starter

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #140 on: July 31, 2013, 03:41:01 am »
Dick Smith Electronics - Australian ham radio kit




« Last Edit: July 31, 2013, 12:30:45 pm by xrunner »
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #141 on: August 01, 2013, 02:46:11 pm »
I've got the DSE 70m FM rig from back in the '80s.
I didn't build it,picked it up faulty ----fault was an o/c  squelch pot.
It works quite well.
 

Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #142 on: August 01, 2013, 03:53:41 pm »
If you watch the video just before that one, he really went to a bunch of trouble to get that rig!

Offline xrunnerTopic starter

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #143 on: August 18, 2013, 11:38:32 pm »
Well, the latest radio toy I have been obsessed with is my software defined radio setup. I just got an SDR dongle last week and since then I've been like a kid in a candy store. I'm running SDR# as the software. I also got a little wideband ant. and stuck it in the attic. I'm amazed at what this technology can do (it doesn't take much to entertain me anyway  ;)).

Now, before I got the thing I was looking hard at new HF transceivers. I know some of the expensive ones have spectrum displays, but I really didn't want to spend all that money. Now I'm totally spoiled. It's just too valuable to see all the signals on either side of your freq, so I can't see operating with just a simple freq. readout. I'm going to research how to use the SDR together with a cheaper HF rig like the IC-7200.

Oh yea - I also ordered a Ham it Up up converter so I can use the dongle on the HF bands, should be here this week. That will really be fun.  :)
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 

Offline dr.diesel

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #144 on: August 19, 2013, 12:27:11 am »
You might consider an Elecraft KX3, it's a SDR portable radio with IQ out, so you can use it with Quisk, the panadapter software on my YT channel.  They have a 100 watt amp that is just about it hit (I have one pre-ordered), and a 2-Meter module in the works.

See here, this was done with my KX3:

http://youtu.be/WcmE7FVr9x4

The KX3 is an AWESOME rig and < $1000 with antenna tuner.

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #145 on: August 19, 2013, 08:39:25 am »
Oh yea - I also ordered a Ham it Up up converter so I can use the dongle on the HF bands, should be here this week. That will really be fun.  :)

I would be very interested in hearing how this goes. Practically all the wideband SDR chips I have seen, have fairly weak receivers (IMD, phase noise). As such I would expect IMD troubles if you pour all of shortwave into one at once, without filters and when using a halfway reasonable antenna.
 

Offline hammy

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #146 on: August 19, 2013, 09:15:17 am »
I would be very interested in hearing how this goes. Practically all the wideband SDR chips I have seen, have fairly weak receivers (IMD, phase noise). As such I would expect IMD troubles if you pour all of shortwave into one at once, without filters and when using a halfway reasonable antenna.

The new Funcube Dongle Pro+ is really good. 192kHz bandwith. I use it with SDR# and a lw ant.
 

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #147 on: August 19, 2013, 09:51:40 am »
The new Funcube Dongle Pro+ is really good. 192kHz bandwith. I use it with SDR# and a lw ant.
Unable to comment meaningfully on that. :-//

There appear to be zero schematics or detailed specifications available for the thing. They do mention using 19 bandpass filters, and talk a bit about the IM3 intercept point for the LNA, that is all I could easily find.
 

Offline hammy

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #148 on: August 19, 2013, 12:11:23 pm »
There appear to be zero schematics or detailed specifications available for the thing. They do mention using 19 bandpass filters, and talk a bit about the IM3 intercept point for the LNA, that is all I could easily find.

Right, only some specs are on the website. (Unfortunately there is no test on the sherwood receiver list.)
I don't hear much difference on weak signals in comparison with my Kenwood TS-590 (on the same antenna).  :-//
 

Offline ElectroIrradiator

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Re: Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?
« Reply #149 on: August 19, 2013, 03:20:34 pm »
Right, only some specs are on the website. (Unfortunately there is no test on the sherwood receiver list.)
I don't hear much difference on weak signals in comparison with my Kenwood TS-590 (on the same antenna).  :-//
Well, it would be splendid if the SDRs have grown up a bit. :) I guess something like using a Si57x as LO, plus a good H-mode mixer, would get you far. However I am a bit curious about some of the claims mentioned on their homepage. If they know and have bothered to write about the +30 dBm OIP3 for the LNA, then why didn't they spend 10 seconds to tell us what the IIP3 is for the whole receiver? The OIP3 for the LNA is a worthless spec on its own, as it says absolutely nothing about the overall strong signal performance of the complete receiver.

The noise figure isn't that fantastic on VHF/UHF. That may be an excusable trade-off though, if they use a 'strong' LNA and have the mixer to match it.

Another weak point on some SDRs built from 'discrete' components, is the poor LO phase noise due to creating the mixer quadrature signals in logic families with relatively high jitter. No mentioning of this data point either. ;)
 


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