On 19/02/2014 16:30, Michael Black wrote:
On Wed, 19 Feb 2014, AndyW wrote:

On 18/02/2014 10:58, gareth wrote:
There was a time, back inthe 1920s and 1930s, that any active device
(valves in them thar days, tubes for the leftpondians) would cost nearly
a week's wages for the average working man, and so it was good
economical
sense to try and use it as many ways as possible simultaneously.

Times have changes, and active devices with performance into the tens
of MegaHertz are now ten-a-penny, so what is achieved by competitions
such as the "Two Transistor Challenge" where it is the costs of
switching
(manual, relays) which would be the major outlay?

Not carping, just curious.

There is something challenging about restricting your resources.
My most memorable receiver I ever built was made from a toilet roll
tube, wire, a crystal earpiece, tinfoil and paper hand-rolled
capacitor and some galena crystal as a detector.
I think I got more satisfaction out of that that I ever did from a
digitally programmable oscillator based beast.

I think that's something that may be lost.

People lament that in this day and age, it's difficult to attract the
young to the hobby, because how can it compete with the Internet?

Because I am a bit of a geek I get asked to run Jamboree on the Internet
for my local scout group in October (been doing it for about 10 years now).
When we have computers set up for text chat, chat rooms, voip, skype
video chat and multi participant video conferencing the kids are simply
not interested in talking on the radio. They can get crystal clear
communication and don't really care about some faint HF chat.

It is sad but to compete radio has to offer something new or different.
I would like to get them to build simple qrp sets and use WSPR to see
how far they can reach and also see how far they can communicate on qrp
with morse (albeit with some help).
They simply cannot make an internet capable computer and OS but they can
make a QRP set like a pixie on a breadboard in an hour and be picked up
around the world on WSPR.
Catch that buzz and then it is a short step to (very slow) morse
communication and hopefully getting them hooked.

And you don't compete with it, you show off things that are unique.

A simple project for a beginner is identical to what it was forty or
fifty years ago, a first project and when it actually gets working, what
an accomplishment. It's not because the simple project is comparable
with the electronic wonders of the 21st century, it's that you built it
and it worked.

I was asked to run a technology based badge for some scouts and had them
making crystal radios, some of them swore blind that it could not work
because there were no batteries despite building it themselves and hand
winding the coils.
The reaction by many is pure amazement that a bundle of wire and junk
can receive a radio station, it remind me of the buzz I first got as a
kid making a crystal set from plans in the eagle annual (I'm not old
enough to get one from new, I bought it in a jumble sale in the 70s)

The buzz is still there if you get them young enough and pre internet chat.

Andy