On 2007-04-12, Nobody wrote:

thanks,
bernard

Actually, no that is not a bad thing for the masses. It is the end of
ham radio for anything other than talking about your guns, cars, or
aliments to other old farts. I am one of those old farts who has no
illusions about the worth of ham radio in this world of modern
reliable instant inexpensive world wide communications.

I remember reading about a little project in the 70s in hawaii called
aloha-net (maybe?)..

this did not *specifically invent* the internet, but I don't think
you can say that ham radio has no worth in this world of reliable instat
inexpensive comms.

granted, the internet is cheap and relatively instant..but as someone who works
in mobile telephony, i can tell you when the **** hits the fan, i would have
no problem to fall back onto ham radio.

you show me a UMTS phone that works 500Km when every radio mast has been ripped t
shreds by some storm.

Packet Radio has been reduce to APRS and a few DX clusters. I got rid
of my packet station in favor of Internet based DX clusters 4 years
ago. APRS is a completely useless waste of radio spectrum. The only
real use of Packet is as a means of accessing and gathering remote
data. However, there is little ham interest in this type of activity
due largely to the fact that most sites that have power from the grid
also have Telco access which means Internet. Most repeaters are idle
now, even during drive time. SoCal used to be jam packed with repeats
on 2 meters and 70 cm during drive time. There are more cell phones
in use at the TRW and other local swap meets than hand helds. During
the evening there is more activity on 2 meter simplex than there is on
the 2 meter repeaters.

The Internet and Cell phones have reduced ham radio to an old guy's
hobby.

or a hobby of someone who is interested in communications.

to be honest, i dont think getting every kid interested in ham radio
would be a good thing.
not a "snob" mentality, but the same reason not every skid should learn to play
the guitar


The Internet provides reliable world wide communications for a
low monthly price eliminating the need for ham radio's traffic
handling system. Even the slowest dial-up Internet access leaves
packet radio in the dust. Chat rooms make random world wide
conversations with people possible by anyone without requiring a test
to prove that you can memorize a bunch of answers to questions without
having to understand anything. Portable Cell sites have eliminated
the need for ham radio emergency communications.i

I dont agree with you on that.
If the cell sites have connectivity to the switching centre by E1/T1, uwave links
its quite possible that the infrastructure is dead after a storm/emergency situation.


Internet connections
in concert with portable cell sites have eliminated the "Health and
Welfare" traffic as well. Both portable cell and associated Internet
access allow anyone to be trained to handle emergency traffic as well
as health and welfare - no license needed. Cell phones have
eliminated any of the freeway accident reporting needs formerly
provided by hams through repeaters at "drive time".

And hea, thats fine. Radio hams is not the answer to everything.
Just the same as Internet is not the answer to everything.

In summary, Ham Radio has joined the model trains, boats, planes and
other old guys hobbies as something to pass time away but which
contributes nothing of value to the advancement of knowledge or
humanity.

No, I can't agree with you here.

Soccer (insert sport here)doesn't contribute value to humanity, does that mean soccer is
a useless hobby?!

There is virtually no interest in ham radio by the current generation
of kids and young adults -- hand held radios and repeaters are archaic
to them (and rightly so) since they walk around with world wide
reliable telco and internet access for pennies a day without having to
prove that they are worthy of some arcane title.

As someone who uses the Internet every single day on my life, I agree with the last bit.

But, also, on the Internet everyone can be an expert (or a dog, depending..).

The Internet has its places, but so does amateur radio.

ta,
bernard