Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?

[Cliff Matthews]

Close, we're at almost 37 million. http://countrymeters.info/en/Canada

[vk6zgo]

An interesting bit of history.. why Europe is still eco-friendly and the US is enslaved to oil and gas.

My mother had an aphorism which I never really appreciated until my first visit to Europe.
She said:  "In America 100 years is a long time. And in Europe, 100 miles is a long distance."

I have heard from European visitors that they have the same surprise upon visiting the US.
When we were arranging a tour for 40 visitors from Romania and South Africa, they asked
if they could land in San Francisco and could we just come and pick them up (from Portland, 630mi/1030km)
Or whether they could take a day-trip down to Los Angeles. (1020mi/1640km)

The entire country of England fits into my median-size state (Oregon) with a bit of room to spare.
You can visit three or four countries in Europe before you cross the county line where I live.

I was very impressed by early tales of entire countries like Luxembourg being 100% wired for internet.
Until I realized that the entire country fits into the eastern half of my county.

OTOH, they refer to the "new part of the city" as the portion that was built 500 years ago.

Keep in mind that most Europium countries tax their population so much, and for so long they are use to a standard of living different from out own.
Owning a vehicle in many countries over there is out of reach of all but those who are well off simply due to all the taxation. This may be due to fewer people in many of those countries as compared to where I am here in The People's Republic of Kalifornia (The State of California) with 35 million people to suck revenue from, more people here than in the whole of Canada.

Europe is a lot more car oriented than it used to be, I can't really say why, as the only really valid experience I have of Europe is the UK.
When I was there for a year back in 1971, people would own a car, but still take Public Transport to work & back.
On the weekend, they would ceremoniously  "get the car out" & drive to some  (from Oz standards), ridiculously close destination, spending half the day to get there due to being stuck in ginormous traffic jams.

I lived in Southampton, & the destination of choice was Bournemouth----they'd get there around midday, look at the sea for 5 minutes, buy something to eat, then get stuck into the traffic jam back home.

I would ask "Why not drive up to London on the Motorway instead?"

They would reply that they weren't interested in London, "It was pretty overrated".
Now, with the decline in Public Transport in that country, they use their cars a lot more.

[AF6LJ]

Close, we're at almost 37 million. http://countrymeters.info/en/Canada

I was shocked when I bought a coat while visiting friends in Vancouver BC.
13% sales tax and that was back in 2001, no telling what it is now.
If you all had 300+ million the shared cost of running the country would be much less.

[AF6LJ]

An interesting bit of history.. why Europe is still eco-friendly and the US is enslaved to oil and gas.

My mother had an aphorism which I never really appreciated until my first visit to Europe.
She said:  "In America 100 years is a long time. And in Europe, 100 miles is a long distance."

I have heard from European visitors that they have the same surprise upon visiting the US.
When we were arranging a tour for 40 visitors from Romania and South Africa, they asked
if they could land in San Francisco and could we just come and pick them up (from Portland, 630mi/1030km)
Or whether they could take a day-trip down to Los Angeles. (1020mi/1640km)

The entire country of England fits into my median-size state (Oregon) with a bit of room to spare.
You can visit three or four countries in Europe before you cross the county line where I live.

I was very impressed by early tales of entire countries like Luxembourg being 100% wired for internet.
Until I realized that the entire country fits into the eastern half of my county.

OTOH, they refer to the "new part of the city" as the portion that was built 500 years ago.

Keep in mind that most Europium countries tax their population so much, and for so long they are use to a standard of living different from out own.
Owning a vehicle in many countries over there is out of reach of all but those who are well off simply due to all the taxation. This may be due to fewer people in many of those countries as compared to where I am here in The People's Republic of Kalifornia (The State of California) with 35 million people to suck revenue from, more people here than in the whole of Canada.

Europe is a lot more car oriented than it used to be, I can't really say why, as the only really valid experience I have of Europe is the UK.
When I was there for a year back in 1971, people would own a car, but still take Public Transport to work & back.
On the weekend, they would ceremoniously  "get the car out" & drive to some  (from Oz standards), ridiculously close destination, spending half the day to get there due to being stuck in ginormous traffic jams.

I lived in Southampton, & the destination of choice was Bournemouth----they'd get there around midday, look at the sea for 5 minutes, buy something to eat, then get stuck into the traffic jam back home.

I would ask "Why not drive up to London on the Motorway instead?"

They would reply that they weren't interested in London, "It was pretty overrated".
Now, with the decline in Public Transport in that country, they use their cars a lot more.

Good to know Thanks. 

[Richard Crowley]

I would ask "Why not drive up to London on the Motorway instead?"

They would reply that they weren't interested in London, "It was pretty overrated".
Now, with the decline in Public Transport in that country, they use their cars a lot more.

Dunno about "overrated", but London traffic is as bad as anywhere I have ever been.
I made the serious mistake of driving across London one weekday. 
Now I understand why they have that big peripheral ring highway.
It is probably faster to drive several km out to the M25 than to try to drive through downtown.

It was challenging enough for this Yankee driver to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.
But it was made even worse by the nearly complete lack of signage.
London (and England and Europe, for that matter) are notorious for lack of street signs.
You are lucky if you can spot a placcard on the corner of a building (if they even have them).
And all the traffic flow information (left two lanes for Croydon, etc.) is painted on the pavement.
So, in heavy traffic you have zero opportunity to even see it, much less comprehend it in time to change lanes.

[vk6zgo]

I would ask "Why not drive up to London on the Motorway instead?"

They would reply that they weren't interested in London, "It was pretty overrated".
Now, with the decline in Public Transport in that country, they use their cars a lot more.

Dunno about "overrated", but London traffic is as bad as anywhere I have ever been.
I made the serious mistake of driving across London one weekday. 
Now I understand why they have that big peripheral ring highway.
It is probably faster to drive several km out to the M25 than to try to drive through downtown.

It was challenging enough for this Yankee driver to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.
But it was made even worse by the nearly complete lack of signage.
London (and England and Europe, for that matter) are notorious for lack of street signs.
You are lucky if you can spot a placcard on the corner of a building (if they even have them).
And all the traffic flow information (left two lanes for Croydon, etc.) is painted on the pavement.q
So, in heavy traffic you have zero opportunity to even see it, much less comprehend it in time to change lanes.

The "Southampton-items" had quite a peculiar attitude to London.
It may well have gone by now, as the "Gen X" & "Millenials" are probably less set in their ways.

It is many years since I drove in London, but I remember getting caught with one of those illuminated "One Way" signs stuck on the corner of a building.
It looked uncannily like the logo of a burger shop chain called "Wimpies" which used to exist.

The London traffic was bad, even in those far-off days, although the drivers themselves were pretty good.

This was not always the case in other British cities.

I remember coming off the Motorway to go into Southampton, & being confronted by a farmer happily towing a huge trailer full of hay behind a tractor right across a big roundabout at about 5mph, looking neither to left or right as he went on his way.


Talking about roundabouts---there was one on the other side of town which had a hill in the middle.

Another delight, which I'm sure has gone by now, was three lane roads, where the middle lane was for passing in either direction.
The idea is OK, but they placed them in the weirdest places, including on a strange, boomerang shaped bridge-----that was seriously scary!

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

I am a ham too (DL1DWG), I took my test ca. 2 years ago, and I have not done a single QSO yet.
Why ? I love building stuff much more than using it. So I promised to myself that I will finish
a homebrew rig first and then go on air.

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/

[AF6LJ]

Hi,

I am a ham too (DL1DWG), I took my test ca. 2 years ago, and I have not done a single QSO yet.
Why ? I love building stuff much more than using it. So I promised to myself that I will finish
a homebrew rig first and then go on air.

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/

One of the rag chew groups I belong to have a few members who are active home brewers.

[Wolfgang]

Cool, 

what do your ham colleagues make ?

Unfortunately I am a TEA myself. Its just too much fun ! 

[bitseeker]

Not unfortunate at all. Welcome, Wolfgang!

[clockspectrum]

Wolfgang...your in good company...I too have had my tech license and now general since 2004. Never had a QSO, but I still want to! May be we should try to link up over HF for the inaugural QSO

Matt

[Wolfgang]

Matt, you wont believe it,

i bought an ANTENNA recently !  It is a Diamond CP-6S (real amateurs please stop laughing).

Now some type of work starts where I was never good at: mechanical stuff.

But I will manage, I promise. 

[clockspectrum]

Hehehe...the best thing I could rig up would be to hang a dipole! Keep me posted!!

[iMo]

I realized the other day, I never, and I mean never, hear about a ham hobbyist on electronics forums.
Thoughts?

Let me apologize for not reading all those hundreds of posts, it could be there is the same "thought"  as this my thought:
There is a lot of ham radio hobbyist in electronics forums, sure. There is a subtle issue with the "call signs" vs. privacy, however. Based on the call sign you may identify the hobbyist, his name and home address inclusive (and sometimes his phone number, and email address - it depends on the various "call book information" data setups, either local or international). So no privacy anymore.. Therefore a lot of ham radio operators do not disclose their call sign when discussing on various forums not directly related to HAM radio.

[Wolfgang]

Hi Sue,

just had a look at your ham shack with tons of rare vintage Heathkit equipment - just great  Congratulations

But I have one question: What is the hammer lying on the table for ?

[tkamiya]

I am a ham, too.  KB4EMF in US and JF2DKG in Japan.  Latter is long expired.

I started with electronics, and got into ham radio almost as an extension of that.  I recall (in the 70s) I built and rebuilt antennas every weekend.  Tinkered with lots of stuff.  Then life took over.  I've tried to revive my hobby few times but petered out in short time.  This time is little different.  The WHOLE THING started because I found this forum which lead me to know WORKING SPECTRUM ANALYZER can be had for little over $1000!!  I couldn't believe it.  Then I got oscilloscopes, another one, another one, the current count is 9 I think.  DVM joined, RF signal generator joined, etc, etc, etc.  Wow....  a dream lab is mine came true!


I am not on air much at all.  I just enjoy THIS side of the hobby.  Why do I need 9 scopes and 2 spec analyzers?  Hey, hobbies are not supposed to make sense.  I want it, therefore I got it.  (the fact that I'm single helps a lot)  I don't care how anyone else enjoys or not enjoy his/her hobby.  This is how I spend my spare time.

[xrunner]

The WHOLE THING started because I found this forum which lead me to know WORKING SPECTRUM ANALYZER can be had for little over $1000!!  I couldn't believe it.  Then I got oscilloscopes, another one, another one, the current count is 9 I think.  DVM joined, RF signal generator joined, etc, etc, etc.  Wow....  a dream lab is mine came true!
...

 Why do I need 9 scopes and 2 spec analyzers?  Hey, hobbies are not supposed to make sense.  I want it, therefore I got it.  (the fact that I'm single helps a lot)  I don't care how anyone else enjoys or not enjoy his/her hobby.  This is how I spend my spare time.

It's OK, you are among friends, please visit this thread -

The Official Test Equipment Anonymous Group Therapy thread

[AF6LJ]

Hi Sue,

just had a look at your ham shack with tons of rare vintage Heathkit equipment - just great  Congratulations

But I have one question: What is the hammer lying on the table for ?

Everyone always asks about the rubber mallet. .....


Speaking of Heath gear....
I just acquired an SB-110A 6 meter transceiver, non working I might point out... The SB-110A is a future project.

Oh yah...
The mallet was used to align the spacers for the shelves.

[bitseeker]

Oh yah...
The mallet was used to align the spacers for the shelves.

And other misbehaving things thereafter.

[FlyingHacker]

I am a ham as well. Though I have a modern SDR rig I like to restore and operate older gear, radios, amplifiers, etc.

I enjoy building antennas, and various small electronics projects to improve my station... mods to improve gear, etc.

It’s a fun hobby if you get into a decent ragchew group of people with similar interests.

[OE2WHP]

My dad was a ham back then, when I was a kid and I was totally fascinated by these rigs, with thousands of knobs, buttons lights and scales. I spent nights, listening far stations on my shortwave radio or listening my dad ragchewing with his friends from all over the world.  When I was 23, I made my license and started on 2m band. HF equipment was just not affordable at that time. Now I have all the ham equipent I ever dreamed of (well, almost) but so less time to spend for the hobby. Radio propagation is also poor with what feels to be the longest low sun spot period ever and a S9 noise floor (qrm) on alomst all HF bands. Thanks to PLC, and LED lights.
EU is loosening EMI regulations more and more, killing ham radio and Austrian government is currently heavily changing laws and regulations for ham radio to the worse. :-(

[VK5RC]

The QRM (man made noise) here is also S7-9 on most of the HF bands. FT8 punches through but I find it impersonal - even PSK31 was better from a contact with a person view point.
I have had a bit of luck with a horizontal loop - about 30-40m of wire - fed with 450  to a 1:1 balun then an auto-tuner to coax into the shack. It is relatively noise resistant as it has a low pass cut off, esp good if you are running an SDR type rig. Perhaps 1-2 S units less noise than a vertical.
73 Rob

[9aplus]

@Wolfgang
Congrats for nice work here -> https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/a-homebrew-fet-probe-to-1-5ghz/

Like to test your last probe version... are you able to sell one to 9A ?
73
9A4DB

[james_s]

It was challenging enough for this Yankee driver to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

I found that to be freakishly hard, far more difficult than it seems like it would be when you think about it. I mean sure, just drive on the opposite side, whatever, except the devil is in the details. It's hard to override years or decades of experience turning left into the left-hand lane, or turning right after just glancing to the left. I only tried driving there for a short while but I was sweating, having to completely focus on what I was doing. I hadn't felt like that since I was a kid in drivers ed and got on the road for the first time.

[Wolfgang]

All my designs are free for noncommercial use.
If you want, I can send you the ExpressPCB file and you can roll your ownmor even modify it.
Please send PM

Wolfgang