Mike Coslo wrote on Wed, 11 Apr 2007
04:22:00 EDT

"AF6AY" wrote in

Other than that, amateur radio licensee numbers MUST remain "up"
in order to indicate to the government there is a "presence" of
citizens in a sizeable number that deserves attention. There
are many different radio services regulated by the FCC and
amateur radio is a minority among those.

Agreed. I'm glad someone got that into this conversation. That we
have these allocations at all is a minor miracle. Numerical preservation
is one of the ways that we will keep them, IMO.

Yes, and proper politicking, too. Example: The model radio-
control channels on 72, 74 MHz. Model hobby organizations and
the model hobby industry fought for that and got them. No way
that model airplanes, boats, cars are "advancing the state of
the art" of vehicles nor is it even a scientific activity. It
is FUN to do. The Academy of Model Aeronautics in Ohio has
a quarter million members and that is only part of total
involved in model hobbies. It CAN be done without all the
high-sounding rhetoric. It is a PEOPLE-involved activity and
the numbers do make a difference.

Caveat: I live in a large urban population area, not unlike
the NYC-LI, Chicago, San Francisco ('Bay Area'), Seattle, etc.
areas. VHF-UHF at LOS paths works well in such areas. But,
there is another part of VHF-UHF radio activity that doesn't
quite have the parallel of HF DX hunting, in-person get-
togethers, spontaneous or planned.

From th etimes that I was out there, that would be VHF nirvana,
tall mountains and fairly flat valleys. I suspect the canyons might be a
little challenging tho'. Back here in PA we have nice mountains, but so
many foothills and corduroy valleys that make repeater work a little more
challenging. But even that can be overcome with effort and fairly deep
pockets. We have a very good local repeater system, with several polling
stations on the local mountains that vote on which signal gets to the
main repeater. A 300 mw HT cam be used over almost the entire county.

I don't know when you were in southern California area, but the
Condor Net began about 1977...back before microprocessors were
available to the hobbyist. On the "220" band, it uses subaudible
signalling to access any repeater path from just north of the Bay
Area (San Francisco) down south to L.A. and San Diego, over to
Arizona and one link to Nevada. All privately funded, all public
access, over 600 miles of all types of terrain, flat to mountains.


Those who operate above 30 MHz should never be
thought of or even considered as "second-class" amateurs
of the "shack on a belt" category.

Absolutely. I've often thought that there was a natural divide
between HF and VHF+. Disregarding 6 meters, which is kind of a mishmash,
it can almost be two different hobbies. I gravitate toward HF myself, but
there is cool stuff happening at VHF and above. And so what if a Hams
hobby is confined to "the repeater" anyhow?

There's an unfortunate stereotypical attitude, enforced by
years of publicity since before WW2 that ONLY HF is
"important" since that is where DX happens. HF is easier
to work with than VHF because "lumped" constants are used
to make identification and understanding easier. By the
UHF region it begins to be "distributed" constants, much
harder for the average ham to understand. But, VHF and
above can do some tricks that are physically impossible
for the average ham home owner...even if "DX" is a rarity.


Our situation is truly a "single data point". My thoughts on that are
that we are working hard to prove that with an inclusive atmosphere
(critical) and selling that sizzle, we seem to be making it work.

Whatever works on the local scenes is good. If it works, it works.


My main point is that with good representatives, Ham radio
shouldn't be a hard sell.

That is the HARD part! The OLD paradigms, the phrases, the
"new" phrases such as "vital to homeland defense" just don't
work with the general public. It hasn't worked enough so far.

As I remarked to Dee, NASA is doing more for ham radio PR than
the ARRL. Those astronauts who got Tech licenses didn't do so
"for the good of amateur radio." They got them because it was
a job requirement. NASA is doing its own PR since it is
publicly funded through the taxpayer.


Knowledge that Ham radio "exists" is nice, I suppose. Even better
would be that people understand that they might want to get involved.

Selling "sizzle" is a first step. Adding the "bacon" aroma
helps a lot. But the sizzle and aroma can NOT remain locked
inside ham club houses. That is NOT proper PR, despite it
making hams in those club houses feeling all good and
emotional.

This isn't rocket science, just pipe dreaming something that might
be an interesting element of the hobby. Who says that we all have to be
doing the same thing?

Ahem...several of the more vocal are dead set on continuing
all the old paradigms, confident that such is the "best" way.
It isn't. The number of NEW licensees arriving on the ham
scene is NOT keeping up with those expirations. It's been in
the statistics for at least three years now and is NOT just a
minor blip in the numbers.

73, Len AF6AY