sailtamarack wrote ...
My question to those of you reading this newsgroup is as follows:
Talking around the world is now free, easy and noise free. Do you
think Skype and programs like it (QsoNet, PC Echolink) are
contributing
to the demise of amateur radio? Is the mystery or mystique of radio
communications evaporating due to these programs and "out-of-the-box"
radios.

I think this is the future and I don't like it!!


"demise of amateur radio"? Perhaps it depends on how we
define "amateur radio". If it is simply a way to communicate
with others, I think you may be right. OTOH, people who have
been though disasters that destroyed "conventional" communication
channels know that anything dependent on the internet (whether
landline-based, or even satellite-based which are still depenent
on terrestial terminal facilities) is completely unreliable except
under ideal circumstances. I fear that as hams are attracted to
this shiny new, easy, "free" mode of communications, our
ability to use "old-fashioned" point-to-point RF (by whatever
mode) will atrophy.