License statistics: NEWSFLASH, Nero fiddles--Rome burns!!!
 

http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html

http://ah0a.org/FCC/

Warmest regards,
John
--
Watching the cutting edge of yesterday replay--in virtual reality, right before my eyes--in real time!
Thirty year old technology--wasn't it amazing?

On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
Why?

Richard:

Good question...
maybe...
1) I have HTML turned off and sending in plain text...
2) The newsgroup server is thinking I am attempting to include a whole
webpage
3) A deadly virus/trojan has taken my computer hostage--AGAIN!!!

I'd be interested if someone knew...
You do see the URL's ok though, right?

Warmest regards,
John
"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
Why?

On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:

http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html

http://ah0a.org/FCC/

Warmest regards,
John

How does it show an increase in Novice and Advanced classes?


--
73 for now
Buck
N4PGW

On Thu, 26 May 2005 22:35:23 -0400, Buck wrote:

On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:

http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html

http://ah0a.org/FCC/

Warmest regards,
John

How does it show an increase in Novice and Advanced classes?

Never mind, those are esitmates.


--
73 for now
Buck
N4PGW

I imagine from discussions like this, and everyone trying to motivate
everyone else into getting enough interested to save the hobby--once I can
motivate a young college mind, they study and go advanced almost
immediately, energy and exuberance counts!--that increase does not even come
close to echoing population growth though... we need TONS more... many hams
are 60+, and while everyone hopes they remain with us forever--that wish
lies in impossible dreams... all of us will go deadkey at sometime, some
sooner--but they will shortly be joined by others and have much company...
frown

.... reality is NOT always fun, but no excuse to not face it...

Warmest regards,
John

"Buck" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:

http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html

http://ah0a.org/FCC/

Warmest regards,
John

How does it show an increase in Novice and Advanced classes?


--
73 for now
Buck
N4PGW

Richard Clark wrote:
On Thu, 26 May 2005 17:39:55 -0700, "John Smith"
wrote:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

Why?

Because it was posted with Outlook Express, which defaults to posting a
HTML version of the message.

FWIW, we're all aware of the statistics. Whining about it makes no
difference, posting statistics and complaining that Nero fiddles is
equally useless. If you want amateur radio to survive, do something
other than using Excel and Outlook Express to generate statistics.

John Smith wrote:
I imagine from discussions like this, and everyone trying to motivate
everyone else into getting enough interested to save the hobby--once I can
motivate a young college mind, they study and go advanced almost
immediately, energy and exuberance counts!--that increase does not even come
close to echoing population growth though... we need TONS more... many hams
are 60+, and while everyone hopes they remain with us forever--that wish
lies in impossible dreams... all of us will go deadkey at sometime, some
sooner--but they will shortly be joined by others and have much company...
frown


It does, but it also helps to have more cutting edge modes. Let's face
it, ax.25 is almost 25 years old and 300 baud data sent from the other
side of the world these days has as much appeal as a tepid bowl of oatmeal.

Couple that with the fact that radio has pretty much lost its romance
and mystique anyway. You'll find plenty of writers who mention sitting
with the radio, tubes glowing listening late into the night to their
favorite shows or distant lands on shortwave, but you won't find much
about cuddling up with the transistor radio listening to AM talk radio.

Amateurs need to tap their existing resources, create real high speed
spread spectrum modes (the HSMM guys have the right idea) within amateur
bands. That'll attract a lot of people, and from there you can generate
interests in other modes. Cement cool bonds between computers and
amateur radio and you'll have a far better chance at attracting people.

Only those too cheap to pay for the internet.

"Jayson Davis" wrote in message
...
Cement cool bonds between computers and
amateur radio and you'll have a far better chance at attracting people.

Fred W4JLE wrote:
Only those too cheap to pay for the internet.

"Jayson Davis" wrote in message
...

Cement cool bonds between computers and
amateur radio and you'll have a far better chance at attracting people.


Thanks for top posting.

No, that's not true. You only create specific services that allow
outbound Internet access. Certainly, you'd filter the living snot for
web services so about the only place they could go would be arrl.org.
But you can create a lot of interesting things along the lines of what
ka9q did with his NOS package over packet. Except in this case, you'd
actually have some speed to it and be able to use bonafide Internet
protocols that work with free/cheap software. Yeah, you can use a web
browser on this network, but you get to browse pretty much the web pages
on the amateur network.

I don't know why people assume high speed data over amateur radio means
an influx of people wanting to use the Internet. Lots of college age
kids have become quite knowledgeable about microwaves and RF by
experimenting with their 802.11 wireless gear. I see no reason they
couldn't do this in the amateur bands because DXing, working SSB on 40
meters and all of that just doesn't appeal to them.

Or, you can let them do their thing, gain their knowledge and push
amateur radio into further irrelevancy. I think we all know where the
prevailing winds are blowing.

On Fri, 27 May 2005 20:39:09 -0400, Jayson Davis
wrote:

Lots of college age
kids have become quite knowledgeable about microwaves and RF by
experimenting with their 802.11 wireless gear.

Hi Jayson,

An observation that is borne out here often enough, but equally so
with those who want to extend their cell-phone range.

I see no reason they
couldn't do this in the amateur bands because DXing, working SSB on 40
meters and all of that just doesn't appeal to them.

This observation seems to both offer the question, and give the
answer. The rhetorical speculation that follows borders on redundant.

Or, you can let them do their thing, gain their knowledge and push
amateur radio into further irrelevancy.

Trying to force fit Ham radio into what "seems" to be their interest
(HF download of 30MB PDF files? By RTTY for hardcopy?) will rate a
goggle eyed response. This is about as successful as Bush selling
Social Security.

I think we all know where the prevailing winds are blowing.
I've heard this dirge sung at wake rehearsals for more than 30 years.
Perhaps if we just pushed a pillow over the old geezer's face, then we
wouldn't have to wonder when.

Try something like new modes such as Amateur Radar, Amateur SETI
transmissions, or Amateur HAARP, or -gasp!- Amateur Broadcasting.

We get more broadcast pirates here than 802.11 or cellular, and across
the board the regulatory thumb is gouged into their eye with a
vengeance. Visitors might interpret this as though we had something
to lose ('cause we ain't gonna upset the FCC applecart coming to their
aid).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

"Jayson Davis" wrote in message
...
No, that's not true. You only create specific services that allow
outbound Internet access. Certainly, you'd filter the living snot for
web services so about the only place they could go would be arrl.org.

I think you can do a lot better than that. Put up some standard commercial
piece of software that filters out known porn sites, etc., and get everyone to
sign up with a valid call sign before granting them access, and go to town.
Yes, the control operator is still responsible for people misbehaving, but I
think a realistic viewpoint is that if you get people to agree to abiding by
the FCC's rules and clearly have made some effort (with the filter software)
to enforce rules, and immediately yank access from people who abuse the
system, you'd be fine.

After all, it's not like repeater owners are forced to take down repeaters
just because some yahoo doesn't follow FCC rules when using it, right?

There are a lot of people out there who seem far more concerned with the exact
letter of the law than the actual intent...

I don't know why people assume high speed data over amateur radio means
an influx of people wanting to use the Internet.

I agree; I don't think it'd be a huge influx. Small, if anything. But a very
satisfying change for those of us who WANT to use amateur radio and the
Internet when we're mobile or otherwise out of the range of public WiFi access
points. (About a month ago I started a thread on the Yahoo! digital radio
group discussing the idea that you'd get WiFi at 'some megabits per second'
when you're close to a lot of infrastructure, 'hundreds of kilobits per
second' when you're working repeaters some tens of miles away in the amateur
bands, and some 'tens of kilobits per second' when you're literally in the
middle of nowhere using systems such as WinLink on the HF bands.)

Lots of college age
kids have become quite knowledgeable about microwaves and RF by
experimenting with their 802.11 wireless gear.

Yes and no. I have seen some very impressive boards made by 'amateur WiFiers'
out there, but realistically the most 'interesting' parts of a 2.4GHz ISM band
radio is all on-chip, and I think you can count on one hand how many people
have the ability to homebrew some RFICs in their basements or after standard
working hours at their employers. Part of the attraction for me with amateur
radio is that you can sit down and build a complete HF (or even 6m or 2m)
transceiver a transistor at a time and have its performance be reasonable
close to what you'd get from an off-the-shelf radio -- sometimes even better!
This just doesn't happen with WiFi. The majority of homebrew WiFi stuff you
see out there is within the realm of digital (i.e., the projects use some chip
that takes in RF and spits out bits -- no RF design necessary... in fact, a
lot of the projects out there interface to a PCMCIA or PCI WiFi _card_!).
While I think amateur radio is probably heading that way as well , performing
analog design for RF processing is much more accessible in amateur radio.

Granted, you could argue that amateurs generally don't make their own
transistors either, but my point is that the level of 'hacking' available to
amateurs can go down to a much lower level than it can with WiFi. There's no
such thing as the 'all discrete component Altoids tin WiFi project.'

I do think there are certain parallels in that the vast majority of people who
are 'into' WiFi are just folks looking to _use_ the technology; they only want
to learn enough about cantennas so that they can successfully link with their
buddy on the other side of town; I think this is true with many hams as
well... and there's nothing wrong with it.

Or, you can let them do their thing, gain their knowledge and push
amateur radio into further irrelevancy. I think we all know where the
prevailing winds are blowing.

Having just returned from Dayton, I'm really not worried that amateur radio is
going to become completely irrelevant any time soon. Not even in a couple
decades from now. By then, I think the FCC regulations will have changed so
drastically that it's pointless to discuss.

---Joel Kolstad

Your welcome! I can see that like me, you abhor wading through umpteen lines
of old info to see what has been added. In the 110/300 baud days, folks knew
how to edit a message to the essentials and bottom posting made sense.

Today with an entire eight hundred line message being quoted, simply to add
"me too" obviates bottom posting. Thank you for your positive comments.

"Jayson Davis" wrote in message
...
Fred W4JLE wrote:
Only those too cheap to pay for the internet.

"Jayson Davis" wrote in message
...

Cement cool bonds between computers and
amateur radio and you'll have a far better chance at attracting people.


Thanks for top posting.