Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
"JB" wrote:
I hate Google Streets. It would seem to be an invasion of privacy for someone to go around taking pictures. Many people feel this way. The only use is if you are trying to buy or sell a house. As I said I use it to see where my contacts live. On occasion I even get to see the tower and/or antennas. I used it scope out my old neighborhoods in the Chicago area where I lived as a kid. Also recently I was recently able to scope out a good parking lot on the beach at Pacific Beach CA (and actually able to read to read the parking sign hours) prior to driving there. So I find lots uses for it. My PO box is on my license. If somebody really wants to find you they can. If you give your call it would be duck soup to find where you live, even using a PO box. But even posting anonymously here on Usenet we can be found. The best advice is not to make anyone mad enough to want devote the resources and time it requires to do it. I still loved to hang on 40 CW Maybe we have QSOed in the past. My computer log goes back to 1990. Unfortunately my paper logs are long gone. Give me your call and I'll check..... ;-) |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
If somebody really wants to find you they can. If you give your call it...
Yes this is true, but you don't have to make it easy for them. They will go after the easy meat first. The best bet is not to leave anything the robots can parse and dump into a searchable database. Then nut cases and spam machines with lots of time on their hands will use someone else. I learned my lesson 10 years ago from using my callsign for my screen name and winding up with hundreds of people from all over the world sending me hate mail because some veeagra and sealis salesmen were spooffing my address. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
On Sep 11, 1:58*pm, "JB" wrote:
If somebody really wants to find you they can. If you give your call it.... Yes this is true, but you don't have to make it easy for them. *They will go after the easy meat first. The best bet is not to leave anything the robots can parse and dump into a searchable database. *Then nut cases and spam machines with lots of time on their hands will use someone else. *I learned my lesson 10 years ago from using my callsign for my screen name and winding up with hundreds of people from all over the world sending me hate mail because some veeagra and sealis salesmen were spooffing my address. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
oops, the above was just a test...
Anyway, the FAA and the ARRL both became concerned with stagnation in the late 50's in the Amateur Service and as a result began to thrash about for ways to keep the service growing... Incentive licensing, and all the other changes we see moaned about on this topic were the result of an actual good-intentions series of changes... Those who believe in conspiracy will never understand that, but that is their loss.. The one thing we won't see is the status quo... Change is a constant, even in the stodgy ranks of hams... So no code it is - for now - and even after more than a half century on the bands I do not proclaim to foresee the future, other than be able to announce with perfect certainty, the regs will change... If you do not like the regs now, just wait - you won't... Now having said that, I am currently working on a series of homebrew pulse desulfators for batteries.. I have one that has been blown up a couple of times, but for the moment is upgraded and again working on knocking the sulfate off the plates of a tractor battery... It has 13.2 volt float with 51 volt pulses at a frequency of ~1kc and ~80ms pulse width... I have delivered and in hand (just yesterday) roughly a $100 worth of parts to build another ten units... I have the design for generation II of these that will feature boost and burp charging with ramping of the pulse frequencies... Next up for gen III will be a 40 volt charger that will be pulse width and frequency agile that will both charge and desulphate simultaneously with a far smaller parts count - the square wave charging pulses doing both actions simultaneously... Today I am beginning the first tests of the devices that will be able to switch 30+ amps at 40 volts... denny - k8do |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
Denny wrote:
Incentive licensing, and all the other changes we see moaned about on this topic... My moaning was because of the *unfairness* of the incentive licensing frequency changes. I passed an examination for General and I expected to be able to use those General frequencies. Then they took away half the General frequencies. Even these many years later (even after having regained those lost frequencies) I think it was an unfair change. Some may moan that the FCC now gives advanced licenses with no code test and modern hams don't have to work as hard for the license as hams in years past. Which is true. And some may moan that people can now get an advanced ham license by memorization without knowing the advanced electronics pretended in the testing. Which is true. But not me because it takes nothing away from privileges already earned. I have an idea (analogy). How about we institute an Extra Plus license. Forget the code test because it's obsolete. But to make sure that the applicant is really qualified he must pass a *real* electronics/digital test, one that can't be passed by memorization. No answer sheets. At the FCC office like in the old days. And....to make the license desirable we take away half of the current Extra privileges and give them to the new Extra Plus. Whoa, talk about moaning... |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
AJ Lake wrote:
Denny wrote: Incentive licensing, and all the other changes we see moaned about on this topic... My moaning was because of the *unfairness* of the incentive licensing frequency changes. I passed an examination for General and I expected to be able to use those General frequencies. Then they took away half the General frequencies. Even these many years later (even after having regained those lost frequencies) I think it was an unfair change. Some may moan that the FCC now gives advanced licenses with no code test and modern hams don't have to work as hard for the license as hams in years past. Which is true. And some may moan that people can now get an advanced ham license by memorization without knowing the advanced electronics pretended in the testing. Which is true. But not me because it takes nothing away from privileges already earned. I have an idea (analogy). How about we institute an Extra Plus license. Forget the code test because it's obsolete. But to make sure that the applicant is really qualified he must pass a *real* electronics/digital test, one that can't be passed by memorization. No answer sheets. At the FCC office like in the old days. And....to make the license desirable we take away half of the current Extra privileges and give them to the new Extra Plus. Whoa, talk about moaning... Well, the current extra class license only adds a small slice of extra phone and cw bandwidth. I lived without the extra class phone segments for years. Finally got my extra when the cw requirement went away. The LACK of incentive plus the 20wpm code was the reason so few upgraded to the extra class, the advanced class license was good enough. Actually the extra cw segments were the most prized, so the cw requirement made sense. As far as techs are concerned... Well I knew quite a few techs who were very much into home brew radios. Some of the best two meter (and up) gear I ever saw was home brewed by those guys. (state of the art in (1970's) mosfet front rx front ends). |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
ken scharf wrote:
The LACK of incentive plus the 20wpm code was the reason so few upgraded to the extra class, Correct. Before Incentive Licensing there was not much incentive to go above General since there were no additional privileges. Those who did upgrade to Extra did it for the accomplishment. And since it was a real (no answers supplied) exam before an official FCC examiner it did show accomplishment. Hams of the day often listed it on employment applications alongside their commercial licenses. Actually the extra cw segments were the most prized, Only if you are a CW DXer. And even before the change, by gentlemans agreement the bottom of the CW band was left for DXers and casual CW operation was higher, pretty much like now. so the cw requirement made sense IMO the only justification for the code test (at that time) was for possible emergency use. As an example a ship in distress, since many ships were still using CW at the time. But other than that making a ham take a special code test made about as much sense as making him take a special soldering test. That was finally recognized recently... As far as techs are concerned... Well I knew quite a few techs who were very much into home brew radios. As it should be. The Tech license was supposed to be for technical use, not just another operators license. But of course that was a laugh. Most Techs bought their equipment and set up shop on the nearest local repeater... |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
AJ Lake wrote:
ken scharf wrote: snip As far as techs are concerned... Well I knew quite a few techs who were very much into home brew radios. As it should be. The Tech license was supposed to be for technical use, not just another operators license. But of course that was a laugh. Most Techs bought their equipment and set up shop on the nearest local repeater... Experimenter Techs were the norm IMHO before the debacle of license class changes in the late '70s, and anything related to repeaters before then involved significant accomplishment Please don't lump 'new' Techs with 'original' Techs. BTW, if anyone knows, I'd appreciate knowing what the grace period after expiration was in 1975 (I was told by a field-office rep that my expired Advanced couldn't be renewed and later I was told that I was probably misinformed and was within a grace period, but I could never confirm that fact). Michael |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
On Sep 14, 10:45*pm, AJ Lake wrote:
ken scharf wrote: The LACK of incentive plus the 20wpm code was the reason so few upgraded to the extra class, Correct. Before Incentive Licensing there was not much incentive to go above General since there were no additional privileges. Those who did upgrade to Extra did it for the accomplishment. Actually, the period when Generals-and-above had all privileges was less than 16 years (Feb 1953 to Nov 1968). Before Feb 1953, you needed an Advanced or Extra to use 'phone on the ham bands between 2.5 and 25 MHz. And since it was a real (no answers supplied) exam before an official FCC examiner it did show accomplishment. Hams of the day often listed it on employment applications alongside their commercial licenses. Also applications for college. Actually the extra cw segments were the most prized, Only if you are a CW DXer. And even before the change, by gentlemans agreement the bottom of the CW band was left for DXers and casual CW operation was higher, pretty much like now. so the cw requirement made sense IMO the only justification for the code test (at that time) was for possible emergency use. As an example a ship in distress, since many ships were still using CW at the time. But other than that making a ham take a special code test made about as much sense as making him take a special soldering test.. That was finally recognized recently... * There were three reasons for it back then: The first reason was the ITU treaty, which required Morse Code testing. The second reason was that the FCC considered Morse Code skill to be part of what it meant to be a qualified radio amateur, particularly one that had full HF privileges. That view has changed since the 1970s but it was a big thing to them in those days. The third reason was that before the 1980s amateur radio was quite different in terms of equipment and mode/band choices. There were no WARC bands (30, 17 and 12 meters) before 1979, and 160 was full of LORAN and hams only had limited use of it. The only data mode was RTTY, done with big heavy electromechanical teletype machines. SSTV existed but required special equipment. So most hams on HF used either Morse Code, SSB or AM. SSB and AM use a lot more spectrum than Morse Code so the total carrying capacity of the HF ham bands would be much less if everybody used voice. As far as techs are concerned... Well I knew quite a few techs who were very much into home brew radios. * As it should be. The Tech license was supposed to be for technical use, not just another operators license. But of course that was a laugh. Most Techs bought their equipment and set up shop on the nearest local repeater... That depends on what era you're talking about. The Technician was created as part of the 1951 restructuring, and originally did not include 6 or 2 meters. Repeaters did not become common in ham radio until the 1970s. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
CW is a hobby (off topic BWTH)
On Sep 13, 7:56*pm, AJ Lake wrote:
My moaning was because of the *unfairness* of the incentive licensing frequency changes. I passed an examination for General and I expected to be able to use those General frequencies. Then they took away half the General frequencies. Even these many years later (even after having regained those lost frequencies) I think it was an unfair change. They took away half of the General *phone* frequencies on 75, 40, 20 and 15 meters. And 25 kHz of the 80, 40, 20 and 15 meter CW/data frequencies. I remember the moaning back then. Basically it came down to the idea that many hams felt they'd earned the right to full privileges forever by passing the General test, and shouldn't be required to pass any more tests. btw, I earned my Advanced in the summer of 1968 and had full privileges for a few weeks until the rules changed in November 1968. Some may moan that the FCC now gives advanced licenses with no code test and modern hams don't have to work as hard for the license as hams in years past. Which is true. And some may moan that people can now get an advanced ham license by memorization without knowing the advanced electronics pretended in the testing. Which is true. But not me because it takes nothing away from privileges already earned. The problem is that changes in the requirements change the nature of the ARS. Not right away, but over a long time. I have an idea (analogy). How about we institute an Extra Plus license. Forget the code test because it's obsolete. But hams still use Morse Code... But to make sure that the applicant is really qualified he must pass a *real* electronics/digital test, one that can't be passed by memorization. No answer sheets. At the FCC office like in the old days. Won't happen because FCC won't take on that job again. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|