In article et, "Dwight
Stewart" writes:

Now, we have someone talking about
the "golden" past like we can all just snap our fingers and go back to that
supposedly perfect time.

1950s & early 1960s, huh? Well, that was a time when surplus was plentiful and
cheap, Generals and Conditionals had full privileges, homebrewing was a lot
more common and there was reportedly a lot less nonsense on the bands.
Anti-antenna CC&Rs were unknown and there was little competition from other
electronic avocations.

However, there was a dark side back then:

- the new medium of television brought with it the spectre of TVI. Evn the
cleanest rigs often tore up the neighbor's reception something awful, due to
fundamental overload or audio rectification. Many sets back then had terrible
design flaws like 21 MHz IF strips and inadequate shielding. And just try
telling your irate neighbor that his new $500 marvel was not technically
perfect...

- Manufactured ham equipment was big, heavy, and expensive. High powered stuff
even more so. Let's not even get into the vagaries of tuning up and the damage
you could do if you messed up the procedure. The prices in the old mags and
catalogs look cheap until you factor inflation. Many folks homebrewed or
converted surplus out of sheer necessity. $1000 would buy a nice station back
then, when a $5000 annual income was solidly middle class. Figure 20% of your
annual gross salary today...

- At the beginning of that "golden" time, "phone" usually meant "AM". (There
was some SSB as early as 1933, and lots more after WW2, but AM was still king
for a while). AM meant bands full of 6-8 kHz wide signals and heterodynes. AM
was simple to implement but not inexpensive even at moderate power due to the
modulation power needed. At end of that period, SSB had pretty much taken over
HF 'phone. In between, a lot of nastiness had flowed back and forth over which
mode was "better".

- The only data mode hams could use was 60 wpm Baudot RTTY, using mechanical
teleprinters that were far too expensive for most hams to buy new. MARS and
surplus were the usual sources, and once the machine was obtained you needed to
build a TU and other interface gear.

- No repeaters. No personal computers. No WARC bands. No legal phone patching.
No VE sessions. No true transceivers until the late '50s. No vanity calls for
99% of hams.

- There were only 100,000 US hams at the beginning of that time and 250,000 at
the end.

And yet, hams had a lot of fun.

Ham radio is, and will always be, just what you make of it, people. If you
choose to focus on the worst aspects of anything, that's all you're going to
see. However, I suspect there is as many good things about ham radio today,
and as many good people in ham radio today, as there was during any other
time period. Regardless, this today is all we have. Either make the best of
it or perhaps you should find another hobby.

WELL SAID!

I'll add this:

One of the great strengths of amateur radio is that it offers a very wide range
of activities to a wide range of people. And one of the great weaknesses of
amateur radio is that it offers a very wide range of activities to a wide range
of people.

73 de Jim, N2EY