[gareth]

I wonder if the dumbing down, whereby those who were too lazy or too
stupid, or both, to pass a Morse Code test were let onto the HF and LF
bands,
is responsible for the surge in interest of HF rigs, with the secondhand
market
allowing the price excesses of the brand-new market, and that once the
needs of such ne'er-do-well ignoramuses are satisfied, will the market
for HF rigs then die?

[Channel Jumper]

Originally Posted by gareth

I wonder if the dumbing down, whereby those who were too lazy or too
stupid, or both, to pass a Morse Code test were let onto the HF and LF
bands,
is responsible for the surge in interest of HF rigs, with the secondhand
market
allowing the price excesses of the brand-new market, and that once the
needs of such ne'er-do-well ignoramuses are satisfied, will the market
for HF rigs then die?

Actually the exact opposite is what I have observed from my point of view.
As long as the amateur radio community is handing out Technician Class Licenses, and as long as repeater owners are linking their repeaters together to give those technicians someone to talk to, there is no reason to buy anything or upgrade their license, even to General.

Because 99% of the people licensed are not knowledgeable individuals, we have a group of know nothings that can't do anything and there is no one to Elmer them. So most people, not knowing any better, spends their money on a cheap Beofung or Whooshun handheld and they think that makes them a ham! Amateur radio was never designed to be cheap.
The cheap ham, the person that doesn't know anything about transceivers or antennas or power supplies or how feed lines works, are more inclined to not buy anything and just give their no traffic once a week on a local repeater net.

As long as you don't do anything, and you don't participate with a club, or a net such as ARES or RACES, or do public service work, or practice drills and scenarios of emergency / disaster type events, you won't ever produce the type of ham that is necessary in these types of events - to be communicators.

The blame clearly lies on the ARRL - since they do nothing to promote amateur radio, only themselves!
When is the last time you saw a television commercial on a national broadcast network promoting amateur radio?
When is the last time you saw a television program with a true relationship of someone that is an actual ham and what it is that we do or should do while on air.

The even bigger joke was the Television Show - Last Man Standing, where the star of the show is supposed to be a big time ham operator - yet never operates. There was all this media hype about how they were going to star amateur radio on the program and then when the time came, all they did was show an empty station that was left running 24 hours a day and a daughter that was not licensed that was talking on the air like a CB'r, that they went ahead anyways and tried to cover their tracks by saying that she too had an amateur radio license.. What a crock of ****!

You have to be a certain type of person to want to get an amateur radio license, and you have to want to be a ham to be willing to upgrade your license to General. Unless you have radio equipment at your disposal, you aren't going to be able to get on the air and talk. So just telling me that the girl did all of this, yet she had no antenna on her vehicle, she had no radio in her bedroom, and she had no license hanging on the wall, and she didn't know how to talk on the radio, not even to identify once every 10 minutes with her call.

All the show was - was a sham - that used ICOM and amateur radio one time to feed their plot. They might as well had used a CB radio and been done with it. It served no legitimate purpose in their house to be a ham, other then to use it - If All Else Failed!

A ham practices their trade at every available opportunity.
They turn on their radios at least once a day, just to see if the bands are open and who is talking.
A real ham would join the ARRL or would at least subscribe to publications so they could keep abreast of what is happening in the radio world.
A ham would have antennas on the outside of their homes and vehicles and they would have skills other than just being able to plug things into the wall.

At least on the television program ALF, the guy that had the ham radio equipment knew how to use it and ALF also knew how to use it and did use it to communicate with others.

As long as no one promotes amateur radio, as long as main stream America doesn't accept what we do as being a public service, as long as the people on the radio acts like dick heads and talks like cb'rs and acts like cb'rs and as long as the ARRL and FCC does nothing about these cb'rs, this is all that it is going to be!

[Channel Jumper]

The reason why the price of used equipment has become so inflated is because the CB'rs are involved and they are the type of person that wants every penny that they paid for a radio - 20 years ago, when most electronic equipment depreciates almost 25% per a year - excluding high end stereo equipment.

The previous generation couldn't give away their old rigs and yet when the internet came along, and eBay, all of a sudden that old equipment now demands a premium price.

WHY?

Because eBay is rigged and people are stupid!
There is nothing to keep someone from making sock puppet accounts and bidding on their own equipment and setting the price so high that they get the price they demand or they relist it a week later and it is right back on the web site - for weeks, or months or years until finally someone buys it or they throw it away.

At one time, the sellers all knew each other and they set the price by bidding on each others equipment and then stopping at the price they dictated that they wanted for the item. If you want the item, you are going to pay a premium price or you aren't going to get it.
The honest seller can't make a go of it because no one will bid on their equipment unless they are practically giving it away.
And the unscrupulous seller that says - it worked the last time I tried it and then sells it without the power supply or the microphone, hopes that you buy it and don't hook it up until the dilemma period for returns has expired and then you are stuck with an old boat anchor.

It only stands to reason that 99% of the junk that you see at hamfests is junk. If the radio was any good, it wouldn't be for sale! The same is true for amplifiers and antenna tuners! Most people are thief's and their goal is to rip off someone the same way they got ripped off when they first became hams themselves. And that is the reason why you have a real hard time selling anything to these new hams. I'm sure that a lot of them doesn't trust someone to sell them anything and the ones that does buy something, needs to buy it with a credit card, because they are broke as a joke and can't afford to pay cash for something good!

The question you should be asking yourself Gareth is - why do people have $90 a month for the cable bill, and $100 a month for a cell phone bill and $60 a month for an internet bill and yet they can't come up with $1800.00 to buy a new Kenwood TS 590 so they can be hams?
The reason is because it takes two incomes to make a go of it and in today's world, if the woman is not interested in it, then the man is not allowed to spend his own money buying things to be a real ham!
The woman wears the pants in the family and she dictates what the man can or cannot do! The stuff they want - a nice house, a nice car, vacations, furniture, clothes, kids, going out to eat - they have no problem coming up with the money to pay for it. But when the man wants something for himself he is asked - can't you find something a little cheaper, or can't you do the same thing without a antenna, or can't you give it up so I can have the things that I want or need?

Once the kids are raised and gone and the woman gets old and the guy is tired of screwing her anymore and they have a disposable income, then money is no object and for some people instead of buying something good, they want what they had or wished they had when they were kids - even if what they want is junk! A person will spend an outrageous amount of money on junk if it has some sort of nostalgia or sentimental value!

[Charlie[_5_]]

On Tue, 21 Apr 2015 09:23:10 +0100, gareth wrote:

with the secondhand
market allowing the price excesses of the brand-new market, and that
once the needs of such ne'er-do-well ignoramuses are satisfied, will the
market for HF rigs then die?

I picked up an Eddystone 770R for £40 at the Andover Boot Sale on Sunday
- in great internal condition, just one 6AK5 gone soft.


Charlie.



--
www.votenationalbird.com/

[gareth]

"Charlie" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Apr 2015 09:23:10 +0100, gareth wrote:

with the secondhand
market allowing the price excesses of the brand-new market, and that
once the needs of such ne'er-do-well ignoramuses are satisfied, will the
market for HF rigs then die?

I picked up an Eddystone 770R for £40 at the Andover Boot Sale on Sunday
- in great internal condition, just one 6AK5 gone soft.


Was that from the guy who also sells a lot of (expensive) morse keys,
for he was at the Sherborne QRP rally the day before.

[Charlie[_5_]]

On Tue, 21 Apr 2015 21:14:15 +0100, gareth wrote:

Was that from the guy who also sells a lot of (expensive) morse keys,
for he was at the Sherborne QRP rally the day before.

No, a couple of people were selling a lot of radios for Chris Parry,
G8JFJ. I gather they will be at Newbury this June. He's written a very
useful reference on restoration which can be downloaded he
http://www.vk2bv.org/radio/radio-fil...ook-140105.pdf



Charlie.
M0WYM.

--
www.votenationalbird.com/

[Oregonian Haruspex]

On 2015-04-21 08:23:10 +0000, gareth said:

I wonder if the dumbing down, whereby those who were too lazy or too
stupid, or both, to pass a Morse Code test were let onto the HF and LF bands,
is responsible for the surge in interest of HF rigs, with the secondhand market
allowing the price excesses of the brand-new market, and that once the
needs of such ne'er-do-well ignoramuses are satisfied, will the market
for HF rigs then die?

I know plenty of very motivated, intelligent people who have gotten
their license since the code was dropped. Is it your contention that
every ham licensed after the code requirement was eliminated is lazy or
stupid?

Most people seem to operate phone anyway, even the old guys who had to
take their buggy to the FCC testing center, battling Indians all the
way.

[Bert[_3_]]

In Oregonian Haruspex
wrote:

Most people seem to operate phone anyway, even the old guys who had to
take their buggy to the FCC testing center, battling Indians all the
way.

I'm one of those guys, although I took a bus to the US Custom House in
Baltimore where the FCC had their local office to take my General exam
back in the mid 20th century. No Indians, just hookers (the Custom House
is just off "The Block" on Baltimore St.).

However, I operate exclusively CW and digital modes.

Turns out that after being licensed for more than 50 years, I found out
that I really don't like talking to people very much :-)

--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN

[John Davis[_3_]]

On 4/21/2015 4:23 AM, gareth wrote:
I wonder if the dumbing down, whereby those who were too lazy or too
stupid, or both, to pass a Morse Code test were let onto the HF and LF
bands,

The reason the Code Test was dropped has nothing to do with "Dumbing
Down" and everything to do with the needs of the Military.. They no
longer use Morse Code.. and thus the US stopped supporting the
international rule that required it and THUS the rule expired and was
not renewed and Thus... The test was dropped.

Though I fully disagree with the FCC on this. they considered it obsolete.

As for me... I have used Morse Code at least twice in the last 30 years
due to OTHER means of communication failing and only Morse Code remained
as a way to communicate.. I did this PROFESSIONALLY, and my job title
was EMERGNCY DISPATCHER so you can guess how important it was.


--
Home, is where I park it.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com