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Chuck Harris

wrote:
Slow Code wrote:
Chuck Harris wrote in
:
Slow Code wrote:
Chuck Harris wrote in

While you are being all holier than thou, what did you design and
build for your main rig? I'm hoping to be impressed, but expecting to
be disappointed.

Did the code help you with the design?

I took my Advanced class test down at 1919 M street 36 years ago. I
had to sit at the desk and copy one solid minute out of five error
free at 13WPM. I passed it on the first try. I almost failed the
sending test, as I had never spent much time doing that. I had never
made a code contact before my test, and I have only made a couple
since.

The thing about code contacts is they never seem to want to say
anything beyond:

WA3XXX DE W6XX RST 5NN WX FB 73 W6XX SK

That's not the case when I operate Morse Code.

I have listened to hundreds of CW contacts, and the above is mostly the norm.
I exaggerate a bit, but it is rare that anyone talks about anything other
than a few very simple things. I have yet to listen to a complex conversation
on CW... The most complicated thing I have heard is W1AW code practice, and
some of the traffic nets.

How does that help the cause of amateur radio?

I have designed and built numerous rf receivers and transmitters, many
are employed by the US Army for various uses. I have fixed many
different radios from tube stuff through DSP driven affairs.

How exactly did the code help me to do this?

For me code was a means to an end. I wanted my license, so I learned
the code.

There were plenty of rude, profane, and generally unpleasant hams on
the air back when all had to pass the test in the offices of the FCC.

I don't remember that at all.

Well, you wouldn't if you spent all of your time on CW. Things are very
polite on those subbands. If however, you ever listened to 20 meters
around 14.313, you might have a different idea of what ham radio was about.
For some reason that frequency was full of profane garbage mouthed hams,
and lots of infighting in the '70s and '80s.

I haven't noticed that things are any worse now. About the only real
difference is in the quality of the gear folks are running. It is
much better than the crappy stuff that was on the air back in the
early 70's.

There were good and bad rigs then as well as now.

Perhaps, but nothing like some of the very cheap sweep tube transceivers of
the late 1960's, and early '70's. Swans that drifted furiously, and practically
invented the term TVI...

What are the bad HF SSB rigs of today? I would bet that even the absolute
worst is cleaner than anything that was available in the '60's, and '70's...
If only because the regulations got tighter on spurious emissions from new
gear.

....
Even 34 years ago, there were study guides that had questions from the
pool used by the FCC. If you could memorize the answers to those
questions, you were virtually assured of passing. I used the ARRL
handbook as my guide.

Do you mean the License Manual?

Nope, I did my Advanced from basic principles. I used the ARRL Radio
Amateur's Handbook as my guide to rules and regulations. The technical
side of my studying came from the handbook, and a variety of other radio
and engineering sources.

It did not have the exact questions and answers in it.

I looked at friend's copy of one of the the license manuals that was available
after my test, and the questions and answers were very close. It was nothing
like the manuals that are available today, but still so close as to be a cheat.

You didn't answer my questions about the home brew rig you are using.

Construction projects you or I have done aren't important.

Yes they are!

That was Slow Code talking, not me. Are you perhaps confusing attributions?

Working to
insure ham radio doesn't turn into CB is important. Agreed?

*BOTH* are important.

Again, Slow Code...

If you're not running a homebrew or at least home-assembled rig, who
are you to call someone else an appliance operator?

What good are technical *discussions* if they don't translate into
actual working radio systems?

I have built and operated a number of entirely home brew radios. Slow Code
is the one complaining about appliance operators, of which it appears
he is one.

-Chuck