If you don't like the conversation, you can always join
in and change it...Can't ya?
Contests only run occasionally...If thats all you hear,
you don't listen too often. The WARC bands have no contests
in general...What would tel and biz want with HF? Useless
for their purposes...Who are you to say what they use the
bands for, if you aren't even a ham? You really don't even
have a clue...Seriously...It's like a circus weight guesser
trying to tell the acrobats how and where they should do
their tricks, even though you have never done acrobatics...
Ham radio is not going anywhere, anytime soon. It does compete
with puters, internet, etc though...No biggie... I can, and do,
talk about anything I want to. Using that as an excuse, is no
excuse. Even the oft blasted code is little excuse these days,
being even the extra class only requires a measly 5 wpm. I hardly
even consider 5 wpm a usable speed as far as CW goes it's so slow
....
They will probably drop that before too long..Ham radio is what
*you* make it. If *you* ain't a ham, you can't really complain
much. Also, investing in a radio/s can be cheap, or expensive.
Both will work just fine. I'd hardly call myself loaded with cash,
and I've got three whole stations just sitting on this table I'm
at...
More radios on the floors...My first xmtr cost me nothing...Was
built with junk parts..You can get a decent HF rig for 200-300
bucks, or even less if you know where to look. I bought an older
yeasu 50w 2 meter rig for 40 bucks a while back...It's all up
to how much, or how little you wanna spend.. MK