Larry wrote:

I bumped into this post after a couple of hours on Skype with a ham buddy
of mine in New Zealand. I was 5-9 for the whole QSO and I don't have an
antenna.

Who do we call "potential recruits" under these conditions? What's the
point, any more? (Please don't point me to that old BS about emergency
comms. I went right through the eye of Hurricane Hugo in Charleston in
1989, talking on Cellular One's AMPS bagphone to worried friends in Ohio as
I stood in the street, in the eye, looking up at the stars in a completely
destroyed neighborhood.

If I want to talk to a buddy in New Zealand, I'll pick up the telephone.
That does, indeed, provide me with pleasure and the satisfaction of
talking with a buddy in New Zealand. If I want to enjoy a different
kind of satisfaction, I'll walk into my ham shack and crank up the rig.
There, I might also experience the satisfaction of chewing the rag
with a buddy, or I might call CQ just to see who responds, or I might
see if I can snag that rare DX station, or check into a traffic net, or
help with the local Skywarn operations, or perform any number of other
tasks. From those I receive satisfaction.

You're right about the fact that if you view ham radio as the ability to
have a spoken conversation with another individual, there are better
ways to do that. Frankly, that's not the specific aspect of ham radio
that interests me; there's not even a microphone hooked up to my HF rig.

Another example: If I want to travel from Chicago to Kenosha, I'll jump
in my car or perhaps take the train. If I want the *trip* to be the
point, perhaps I'll use a motorboat. If I want to have a different kind
of experience and hone a skill that not everyone has, I'll join some
friends and race sailboats to Kenosha, enjoying the mental challenge of
figuring out what is the best course, rigging, and strategy based on
current wind and weather conditions. The fact that the most efficient
method of travelling from Chicago to Kenosha is not by sailboat does not
diminish the fun of sailing as a hobby.

The system is even better, now, unless, of course, the Illuminati use
thermite to take out the building the cellular switch is located in like
9/11 in NYC.

You are correct that communications infrastructure grows better and more
resilient as more and more money is poured into it. You are wrong that
it always survives a disaster.

I'm thrilled that you were able to wander through a hurricane chatting
on your cellphone. I can counter that story with the opposite one from
Katrina, where communications infrastructure disappeared from large
areas for long time periods. I can also tell you that FEMA, the Red
Cross, and other organizations are spending large sums of money to
prepare mobile equipment to move into place to take care of those
interruptions that you don't acknowledge. Ham radio does still have a
place in those sorts of events, even if it's not the same role that it
might have had a decade ago.

But that's not really the point. The point is that ham radio is a
multi-faceted hobby, with many different interest groups. That doesn't
mean that it's for everyone, but there's a lot more than chatting with a
buddy or supporting emergency communications.

73, Steve KB9X