Whatever Happened to Ham Radio?

[Wolfgang]

I have no doubts that ARES could be useful in quite some situations. If some ham radio officials claim that ARES is an issue to keep ham radio frequencies alive, to attract positive public attention, ... then they should also adapt their education programs (license tests) and make sure that ARES is properly handled by all hams. Then, I suppose, the other emergency services would take them more serious.

[james_s]

I vaguely remember the early 80s when it seemed almost everyone had a CB radio. Then in the 90s there was still a lot of activity on the air, but I have the CB frequencies programmed into my scanner and only ever hear a peep there once in a blue moon. It was kind of cool back in the day, the pre-internet equivalent of a chat room but I guess it's mostly just truckers using it now.

[PhilipPeake]

Some good points there.

However it misses three things. The social, skill and competitive aspects. It isn’t just about technology but how it manifests itself in human hands. Sometimes people do things the old and hard way because it’s more fun. Hence the ridiculously large CW following.

Voice modes are only as dead as they are because HF propagation is crap at the moment so people are playing digimodes due to the better efficiency.

Shacks are however portable now. Mine is

It wasn't so long ago that CW was required. And short of the digital modes like PSK it IS the most efficient method with low power, high noise situations.

Can you do better with a room/car/whatever full of computer and sophisticated radio gear? Of course you can. But for basic simplicity and working with minimal gear, you can't beat it.

That said, I never got on well with CW. Tried multiple times over many years to get up to the required standard to pass the test, but just never got there. Maybe I just didn't dedicate enough time to it, or maybe my brain just isn't wired that way, but whatever, for those that want to use it, go for it! (Just don't try to force me to use it :-) )

[james_s]

One of the great things about hobbies is that there's no one right way to participate, but that doesn't stop some from acting like there is. One of my other hobbies is flying RC aircraft, mostly planes but I've dabbled in helicopters and multirotors, but a lot of people seem to belong to a specific camp. You have the old school nitro/gas balsa planes, you have the electric plane guys which is split between traditional balsa models and "foamies" that have become quite good as well as being cheap. Then a lot of the plane guys look down on the "drone" guys, the balsa guys look down on the foamie guys, etc and there are rivalries around the brand of radio gear and other seemingly trivial matters, it's all a bit odd to me.

I can certainly relate to the nostalgia aspect too, yet another hobby being vintage computers, as well as classic arcade games, I have a love for CRTs and other vacuum tubes and if I could ever fully grasp Morse code I think making a distant contact on a tube based CW set sounds like fun. I don't particularly like sitting around gabbing on the radio but there's nothing really wrong with that. In another decade or two when all the old timers are gone there will probably be a resurgence of that as a generation that has lived their whole lives with the convenience of cell phones discovers the novelty. What's old becomes new again.

[AF6LJ]

I vaguely remember the early 80s when it seemed almost everyone had a CB radio. Then in the 90s there was still a lot of activity on the air, but I have the CB frequencies programmed into my scanner and only ever hear a peep there once in a blue moon. It was kind of cool back in the day, the pre-internet equivalent of a chat room but I guess it's mostly just truckers using it now.

With the sunspot cycle at minimum you won't be hearing a whole lot.
There is not much local activity here considering we are a large city and right on the Mexican border.

[james_s]

There used to be a lot of activity all over. I remember playing with a CB radio in the late 80s and you could turn it on practically any time of the day or night and hear all sorts of people chatting. Now it's mostly silence.

[janoc]

There used to be a lot of activity all over. I remember playing with a CB radio in the late 80s and you could turn it on practically any time of the day or night and hear all sorts of people chatting. Now it's mostly silence.

Cellphones and internet took away a lot of former CB users. They are simply more convenient for what most people wanted to do (chat). Normal technology evolution. These days CB is mostly the domain of truckers.

The sunspot minimum isn't helping neither because the high HF bands are almost constantly closed so no long distance propagation. Even HAMs don't get to hear much above 20m (14MHz) these days, CB is almost 2x higher at 28MHz.

[james_s]

I wonder if that's why I've only rarely been able to receive WWV and WWVH recently, I hadn't followed the status of the sunspots recently.

[jonovid]

I have no doubt that someone will design a CW transceiver into the base of a classic telegraph Morse Key
with the wifi menu on your phone and charging its battery via the cigarette lighter socket.
I am surprised that smoking is still legal in 2018. nothing dies, as everything is relative nowadays,
some goes for my father's nonprofessional radio hobby.

[bd139]

I wonder if that's why I've only rarely been able to receive WWV and WWVH recently, I hadn't followed the status of the sunspots recently.

Probably is. They're turning that off apparently soon anyway as everyone is using GPS references these days.

[AF6LJ]

I wonder if that's why I've only rarely been able to receive WWV and WWVH recently, I hadn't followed the status of the sunspots recently.

Yes and to top it off..
Congress is talking about cutting back funding for WWV / WWVH.

[Wolfgang]

I have learned that the time service transmitters are suffering from so much RFI caused by LED lighting, power line communication, all kinds of noncompliant wall-warts, ...
to a degree that makes them unusable as a time source.

For another radio amateur I built a box that emulates the WWVB frequency (60kHz) from a Rubidium standard, like here:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/an-noninteger-frequency-divider-with-sinewave-output/

Why are they so important ? You could use GPS, GALILEO or GLONASS to acquire a precise standard frequency.

[james_s]

I hope they don't shut it down, I have several clocks that rely on the 60kHz WWVB and even out here on the west coast those still work great. The shortwave WWV and WWVH stations are harder to receive, I always have liked those even if GPS is a more practical time source on a day to day basis.

[bitseeker]

Gee, my watch syncs to WWVB. If it gets shut down, I guess I'll have to set up a GPSDO with a transmitter similar to what Wolfgang did. Just to update the time on my watch, that seems like overkill. But it'd be an interesting project.

[AF6LJ]

I have learned that the time service transmitters are suffering from so much RFI caused by LED lighting, power line communication, all kinds of noncompliant wall-warts, ...
to a degree that makes them unusable as a time source.

For another radio amateur I built a box that emulates the WWVB frequency (60kHz) from a Rubidium standard, like here:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/an-noninteger-frequency-divider-with-sinewave-output/

Why are they so important ? You could use GPS, GALILEO or GLONASS to acquire a precise standard frequency.

Here they are still quite usable, I have a ban here on non-compliant wall rats.
I just destroyed one this last week.

[Wolfgang]

CE (China Export  ) labelled wall warts are a real pest here in Europe. With whatever you buy from China you are bound to get one that does not meet EMI and RFI specs.

I got so desparate that I made my own USB power supply on the bench:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-quad-usb-power-supply-with-low-noise/

When I get to it I will kill some more wall warts, plus I will replace my LED lighting switching PSUs by linear ones. You wont believe what is on your scope with just a bare wire attached ! On the other hand, a nasty lab will teach you to not take shielding lightly. If your crap works there, I should work anywhere 

[AF6LJ]

CE (China Export  ) labelled wall warts are a real pest here in Europe. With whatever you buy from China you are bound to get one that does not meet EMI and RFI specs.

I got so desparate that I made my own USB power supply on the bench:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-quad-usb-power-supply-with-low-noise/

When I get to it I will kill some more wall warts, plus I will replace my LED lighting switching PSUs by linear ones. You wont believe what is on your scope with just a bare wire attached ! On the other hand, a nasty lab will teach you to not take shielding lightly. If your crap works there, I should work anywhere 

Around here I would believe it, add to the hash an AM and two FM stations.

[Wolfgang]

Some day our environment will be so electrosmogged that you dont need energy from the power grid anymore 

[bitseeker]

The energy harvesters will love it!

[james_s]

Despite the lousy efficiency, there's something to be said for the old fashioned iron transformer wall warts. They have much lower RFI emission and they're a lot more reliable too. I finally put one on my internet router after I went through about 3 of the switching type.

[borjam]

At least in Spain a ham operator is legally bound to help the authorities in case of emergencies. It could be in person or allowing usage of equipment.

That said, are we likely to experience the kind of emergency that would really require hams to help? I can imagine two scenarios.

- A really catastrophic one, like the Katrina or the latest hurricanes hitting Puerto Rico. In one of these a reserve of people with experience improvising installations and using simple, low tech equipment (opposed to complex to install and operate, with potentially fragile software) could help. Hopefully most of us will never experience such a thing.

- A not so catastrophic one that maybe won't destroy all the infrastructure but will prevent ordinary citizens to contact their distant relatives and say "I am fine".

In the second case a simple ham network could help. It wouldn't be directly supporting the disaster relief efforts but could really help the affected people and their families.

I live near Bilbao and in the early 1980's we experienced a serious flooding event. Hams and even illegal CB operators really helped in that case. Of course we didn't have mobile phones at that time. But I am a bit skeptical of the capability of network operators to keep the service up in a catastrophic event. If only because many of them don't have much proper technical staff, working with outsourced manufacturer staff instead.

[bd139]

It's a fair point on mobile phone operator availability. We had near to no service here for 2 days in the middle of London because someone hit one of the cabinets with a truck.

[Kalvin]

CE (China Export  ) labelled wall warts are a real pest here in Europe. With whatever you buy from China you are bound to get one that does not meet EMI and RFI specs.

I got so desparate that I made my own USB power supply on the bench:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-quad-usb-power-supply-with-low-noise/

When I get to it I will kill some more wall warts, plus I will replace my LED lighting switching PSUs by linear ones. You wont believe what is on your scope with just a bare wire attached ! On the other hand, a nasty lab will teach you to not take shielding lightly. If your crap works there, I should work anywhere 

I have a similar project in my todo-list. However, I have considered using some sort of low-noise switching power supply with sufficient filtering as pre-regulator for improved efficiency and reduced heat dissipation. For example Analog Devices have some low-noise switching ICs. And placing the power supply inside a metallic enclosure will reduce any switching noise in general as long as power input and outputs are filtered sufficiently using ferrites etc.

It is no wonder that linear power supplies are popular among hams although the efficiency may not be that good. It will keep your coffee hot during QSO, too.

[Wolfgang]

Despite the lousy efficiency, there's something to be said for the old fashioned iron transformer wall warts. They have much lower RFI emission and they're a lot more reliable too. I finally put one on my internet router after I went through about 3 of the switching type.

I fully agree. They last forever and RFI is minimal. Problem: they are getting rare.

[Wolfgang]

CE (China Export  ) labelled wall warts are a real pest here in Europe. With whatever you buy from China you are bound to get one that does not meet EMI and RFI specs.

I got so desparate that I made my own USB power supply on the bench:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-quad-usb-power-supply-with-low-noise/

When I get to it I will kill some more wall warts, plus I will replace my LED lighting switching PSUs by linear ones. You wont believe what is on your scope with just a bare wire attached ! On the other hand, a nasty lab will teach you to not take shielding lightly. If your crap works there, I should work anywhere 

I have a similar project in my todo-list. However, I have considered using some sort of low-noise switching power supply with sufficient filtering as pre-regulator for improved efficiency and reduced heat dissipation. For example Analog Devices have some low-noise switching ICs. And placing the power supply inside a metallic enclosure will reduce any switching noise in general as long as power input and outputs are filtered sufficiently using ferrites etc.

It is no wonder that linear power supplies are popular among hams although the efficiency may not be that good. It will keep your coffee hot during QSO, too.

A *properly* done switching PSU with very good RFI suppression is also a possibility, of course. Even sensitive T&M equipment like Keysight spectrum analyzers have switching PSUs today. If you look how they are built and then have a look on a Chinese wall wart PSU, there are no similarities .

When you look on my oversized box and cooler I would say that I need to keep my coffee warm elsewhere ...