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-   -   Echos from the past, code a hinderence to a ticket (https://www.radiobanter.com/policy/75828-echos-past-code-hinderence-ticket.html)

[email protected] August 6th 05 11:03 PM

From: on Fri 5 Aug 2005 09:36


John Smith wrote:
Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN LIARS!"

Omission of relevant facts can be a form of lying.


Jimmie! That's called "the Sin of Omission!" Ain't "lying."

The ARRL does that a LOT.

Of course, to you, the ARRL always tells the "truth" and all others
are "liars." [or, at least, a "form" of liars...]

Tsk, you've gone over to the Dark Side wherein Stebie dwells.

Here's the whole story:

I read that bit of W5YI propaganda, and also the original articles in
"200 Meters And Down" and the QSTs of the time.


...and, to you, the ARRL "tells the only truth!" :-)

(have you done so?)

The referenced article does not give all the relevant facts.


True, the ARRL "history" omits a LOT of facts. According to
you, omitting facts is equivalent to LYING! Tsk, tsk.



To get a clear picture of what was actually happening, it is important to
understand what ham radio was like back in those days. After WW1, ham radio
almost ceased to exist. It was brought back to life by the dedicated efforts
of a few enthusiasts.


"Hiram Goes To Washington, Saves Ham Radio!" :-)

Hello? You've heard of the Radio Club of America? Formed in
1909 and still active.

Ever hear of Thomas H. White? He's got a very detailed lengthy
website on the History of Radio in the United States. Covers
Everything in radio.

Amateur radio was not even recognized by international treaty until 1927. The
1927 treaty resulted in stricter new rules and much-narrowed bands.


Did that disturb you at the time or were you indifferent to
your design of state-of-the-art ham radios?

There's more Real History of "treaty" matters at the ITU
(International Telecommunications Union) website. A UN body,
the ITU superseded the CCITT for international communications.

By 1929 there were about 16,000 hams in the US. Almost
all of them were on the 160, 80, 40, and 20 meter bands. A typical ham
transmitter was a self-controlled power oscillator, and a typical ham receiver
was a three tube regenerative. Sure, more advanced techniques existed, but few
hams could afford them in thos Great Depression years.


Tell us all about the Great Depression, Jimmie. You were THERE,
right? Your Dad was unemployed during the Depression, right?

Code skill was important in almost all radio services. 10 wpm was not
considered as anything like professional level - 25 or 30 wpm was more
like it. (This was with semiautomatic keys for sending and manual
typewriters for highspeed copy).


You are familiar with "almost all radio services?" Tell us about
"Type C Carrier" that was the first modulation source of the first
SSB transmission contents, such as from Hilversum to the Netherlands
Antilles.


But the Depression and the new regs had a surprising effect on ham radio. The
number of hams took a sharp upturn in the early thirties. By 1935 there were
over 46,000 hams - almost TRIPLING the number of just five years
earlier! But the turnover in amateur radio was approaching 40% per year.


Tsk. You forgot a "minor" item...The Communications Act of 1934
and the newest U.S. radio regulating agency, the FCC. You can
read about that on the FCC's own webpage along with some historical
letters (some from FDR) concerning who should control what in
interstate and international communications (which includes radio).

Of course, if you wanted to read a LOT more on the Real History
of Electronics, you could hustle on down to a technical library
and peruse McGraw-Hill's ELECTRONICS magazine anniversary issue
of April 17, 1980.

In that ELECTRONICS issue you'll find a few facts such as the
public's identification with radio growing by leaps and bounds
now that AM broadcasting had become widespread. "Hams" really did
have OTHER forms of information input other than the ARRL...

This meant that most hams were raw newcomers, with relatively little technical
knowledge or operating skills. A ham with 5 years on the air was a
veteran, one with 10 years was a grizzled old timer. Problems of
interference and crowding abounded. Complaints from other services
threatened the existence of ham radio.


Wow, sounds like Hams of the 20s and 30s were just like CBers!

The problem was that thousands of newcomers were learning just enough to pass
the tests, assembling simple stations with little understanding of proper
design, adjustment, or operation, and putting them on the air. Many of these
newcomers lost interest quickly, particularly when the limitations of their
knowledge and skills became apparent.


Wow, sounds like the Hams of the 20s and 30s were now Just Like
the lowly underclass Technicians!!

The newly formed FCC was concerned, as was the ARRL.


The FCC was "concerned?" Really? Big "fans" of Hams, were they?

Formed in 1934, the FCC was still getting its act together in those
early thirties and so was the rest of the federal government.
There's
LOTS MORE politics involved with ALL forms of communications at the
time, not JUST the simplistic involvement of radio amateurs.

The action proposed by the ARRL to the FCC was in two parts: Raise the code
speed SLIGHTLY, (10 to 12-1/2 wpm) and make the written test more
comprehensive. The changes to the written tests are all but ignored by
the NCI article.


Does WT Docket 05-235 concern itself with WRITTEN TESTS? NO!

The goal was NOT to limit the total number of hams, nor to hinder or
deter anyone from getting a license, but to control the flood of
newcomers, and make sure that the new folks had the necessary skills
and knowledge.


Crap! The ARRL was then LED by the morsemen and, through its profit
in publishing amateur-related periodicals and handbooks could afford
legal representation in DC to swing government decisions its way.
T.O.M. survived into the thirties and prior to that, as a virtual
president-for-life, had gathered around him fellow morsemen to
spread the "CW" word.

"CW" technology was simpler than AM and the publisher's editors
could understand the simpler stuff. The "advanced technology"
information out of Newington at the time was very basic stuff.
Ready-built amateur radio products weren't much
better...regenerative
receivers like the National Radio "Thrillbox!" (what a name!) and,
what few AM ham rigs existed used the brute-force audio power
amplifier to swing the final amp's plate supply. Wow! "high tech!"
The superheterodyne receiver was invented in 1918 and the Phase
Locked Loop in 1932...

Look at the complete picture, and the action of the FCC in 1936 makes
sense.


Looking at the COMPLETE PICTURE will only make a mockery of what
the ARRL chooses to tell hams. COMPLETE, Jimmie, not the spoon-
fed pap interspersed with self-congratulatory League praise of
itself. Things have CHANGED now, Jimmie, and there's lots of free
Real History available for everyone on the Internet. One very good
place to start is:

http://earlyradiohistory.us

by Thomas H. White, a huge collection of information, many scans
of documents covering early radio history from 1897 to 1926. It
is not colored or spin-doctored as some membership organization's
"histories" are for self-promotion purposes.

The History page of the FCC's own website has more. [FCC is not
a membership organization]

job non



[email protected] August 6th 05 11:06 PM

From: John Smith on Sat 6 Aug 2005 10:13

Mike:

As usual, you got everything backwards... digital is not analog, end of
story.


Easy do, John, the Coslonaut is "reaching for the edge of space!"

The modem on the mic just points out hams are too lazy, or two limited to
even be able to kludge a simple digital project together, when the parts
are just laying around. Hell, you have to use such stuff, real digital
equip is few are far between and there are so few hams the call for such
equip is almost non-existant, and that is sure not much motivation for
manufacturers to build any!


Witness the comments on a previous thread about the "Sienna,"
a new HF transceiver built around a PC-on-a-card. It is not
"real radio" to some of these MMMs so they decry it. However,
this small DZ outfit chose to remove its first kit from its
product line called the "PSKUBE." That one was essentially a
PC with built-in LCD screen display and detachable keyboard
designed expressly to work with PSK31 or any other common
TTY format...full HF receiver and QRP (sorta) transmitter.
Apparently the demand for the PSKUBE was so low that it would
not have been profitable for DZ to continue marketing it.

Your arguments are lame, you are confused, you are just ****ed that some
real numbers are going to come to amateur radio. You know the old brass
pounders are going to be setting out there chatting with the fewer and
fewer of themselves which survive each and every new coming year, time is
their enemy and the hope of progress...


Coslo seems to have but one aim: Winning points in message
exchanges. Doesn't matter what the subject matter is, he
will swing either way to win a round. shrug

win non



John Smith August 6th 05 11:36 PM

b.b.:

Trust me, the internet gets through when CW will not...

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:24:09 -0700, b.b. wrote:


wrote:
From: b.b. on Aug 5, 4:12 pm

John Smith wrote:


Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN LIARS!"

When Hans proposed that in the brave new world of a No-Code HF License,
that one should have to take a Morse Code Test to use CW, Jim/N2EY said
that a Morse Code Test would be a -barrier- to Morse Code use. Hi!
It's always been a barrier.


True for many, Brian...and unworthy of keeping in federal
radio regulations about amateur radio.

Also true is that Jimmie has never refuted that quotation. It
may be that he has come to believe reality? Well, that may be
a bit too much to hope for...

too for


If code testing is good for people who just want to use voice modes, it
must be doubly good for those who want to use CW.

CW gets through when everything else does.



Dave Heil August 7th 05 01:32 AM

John Smith wrote:
Dave:

Anyone with a computer can grab the statistics off the FCC and arrl sites,
who is left which trusts them, if you, don't include me.


I trust them and you are excluded. I know much about the FCC and the
ARRL. I don't know a thing about you, nor would I trust you.

No, I was born at different time, when you got real data, real numbers,
real people to stand behind it, I understand the youngsters might be
confused by all this, but all us old timers have a real past when
everything was different. We have a bit more "history" to go by....


If you told the truth in stating your age, I'm about a year older. So
you weren't born at a differeent time. I'm still getting real data and
real numbers. I have no reason to doubt the numbers. Each radio
amateur has a published name and address. If you'd like to randomly
sample for accuracy, start writing to a number of them.

I guess you can just chuck me into the "conspiracy nuts" group...


I'd already done so.

I don't
trust the figure, politicians, and news anymore...


That probably accounts for the pseudonym.


if I have to
appoligize for it, so be it... but don't consider it a half-felt one...


A man should never have to apologize for being a conspiracy nut. It
marks him as a rugged individualist.

Frankly, I like progress, don't much care for liars and "spin doctors."


If you don't pay attention to figures, politicians and the news, how do
you know we're making progress?

Dave K8MN

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 03:34:26 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:


John Smith wrote:

Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc...

Those figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John


You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil




Dave Heil August 7th 05 01:40 AM

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!


It's a nice story. It is a pity that t'ain't true. I've run pileups
spanning five to seven KHz for as long as six hours at a time, working
200-300 CW QSOs per hour. That happened as recently as 2000. DXing and
contesting aren't games about twenty and thirty years ago, they're
about what you've done lately. Contest scores have gotten bigger. The
top scorers work more stations than were worked two or three decades ago.
There are domestic scores now which top the world high scores of that
many years ago.

Dave K8MN

Dave Heil August 7th 05 01:45 AM

Mike Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!



This approach has been in evidence early on. Facts are of secondary
importance to opinion.

If we are told that there are not the number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.

If we are told that the only thing needed to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the facts as they go
along, so why do it?


It is tough to beat an anonymous man with invisible sources for
invisible facts.

- Mike KB3EIA -

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.

Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


Dave K8MN

John Smith August 7th 05 01:51 AM

Dave:

From your text and exchanges here, I'd venture to say you are below
average, most likely a C student though high school and no degree, but
possibly an AA at some community college...

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:32:45 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Dave:

Anyone with a computer can grab the statistics off the FCC and arrl sites,
who is left which trusts them, if you, don't include me.


I trust them and you are excluded. I know much about the FCC and the
ARRL. I don't know a thing about you, nor would I trust you.

No, I was born at different time, when you got real data, real numbers,
real people to stand behind it, I understand the youngsters might be
confused by all this, but all us old timers have a real past when
everything was different. We have a bit more "history" to go by....


If you told the truth in stating your age, I'm about a year older. So
you weren't born at a differeent time. I'm still getting real data and
real numbers. I have no reason to doubt the numbers. Each radio
amateur has a published name and address. If you'd like to randomly
sample for accuracy, start writing to a number of them.

I guess you can just chuck me into the "conspiracy nuts" group...


I'd already done so.

I don't
trust the figure, politicians, and news anymore...


That probably accounts for the pseudonym.


if I have to
appoligize for it, so be it... but don't consider it a half-felt one...


A man should never have to apologize for being a conspiracy nut. It
marks him as a rugged individualist.

Frankly, I like progress, don't much care for liars and "spin doctors."


If you don't pay attention to figures, politicians and the news, how do
you know we're making progress?

Dave K8MN

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 03:34:26 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:


John Smith wrote:

Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc...

Those figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil





John Smith August 7th 05 01:53 AM

Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:40:39 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!


It's a nice story. It is a pity that t'ain't true. I've run pileups
spanning five to seven KHz for as long as six hours at a time, working
200-300 CW QSOs per hour. That happened as recently as 2000. DXing and
contesting aren't games about twenty and thirty years ago, they're
about what you've done lately. Contest scores have gotten bigger. The
top scorers work more stations than were worked two or three decades ago.
There are domestic scores now which top the world high scores of that
many years ago.

Dave K8MN



John Smith August 7th 05 01:58 AM

Dave:

Maybe I am mistaken!!! They aren't counting dead hams by any chance, are
they? (and, they most CERTAINLY ARE!)

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:45:50 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!



This approach has been in evidence early on. Facts are of secondary
importance to opinion.

If we are told that there are not the number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.

If we are told that the only thing needed to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the facts as they go
along, so why do it?


It is tough to beat an anonymous man with invisible sources for
invisible facts.

- Mike KB3EIA -

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.

Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


Dave K8MN



b.b. August 7th 05 02:04 AM


John Smith wrote:
b.b.:

Trust me, the internet gets through when CW will not...

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:24:09 -0700, b.b. wrote:


wrote:
From: b.b. on Aug 5, 4:12 pm

John Smith wrote:

Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN LIARS!"

When Hans proposed that in the brave new world of a No-Code HF License,
that one should have to take a Morse Code Test to use CW, Jim/N2EY said
that a Morse Code Test would be a -barrier- to Morse Code use. Hi!
It's always been a barrier.

True for many, Brian...and unworthy of keeping in federal
radio regulations about amateur radio.

Also true is that Jimmie has never refuted that quotation. It
may be that he has come to believe reality? Well, that may be
a bit too much to hope for...

too for


If code testing is good for people who just want to use voice modes, it
must be doubly good for those who want to use CW.

CW gets through when everything else does.


But, but, but...

You'll get told that the internet is as unreliable as cellular
telephones.


an old friend August 7th 05 02:07 AM


Dave Heil wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!



This approach has been in evidence early on. Facts are of secondary
importance to opinion.

If we are told that there are not the number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.

If we are told that the only thing needed to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the facts as they go
along, so why do it?


It is tough to beat an anonymous man with invisible sources for
invisible facts.

- Mike KB3EIA -

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.



HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.


really? gee it falls into the same catagory as when it was said that we
ham had been banished to "useless frequencies" everything above 200M

when was that Jim

Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


Dave K8MN



John Smith August 7th 05 02:11 AM

Dave:

Try to keep in the forefront of your mind that everyday which goes by sees
another of the 60+ year olds dominating HF, suffer a stroke, succumb to
alzheimers, suffer massive a heart attack, etc, etc... indeed, a quick
scan and monitor of the bands discloses much, too much chit-chat on the
medical element which is plaguing them...

The next five years are GOING to be devastating on this groups numbers...

You only need logic to read those tea leaves...

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:32:45 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:

John Smith wrote:
Dave:

Anyone with a computer can grab the statistics off the FCC and arrl sites,
who is left which trusts them, if you, don't include me.


I trust them and you are excluded. I know much about the FCC and the
ARRL. I don't know a thing about you, nor would I trust you.

No, I was born at different time, when you got real data, real numbers,
real people to stand behind it, I understand the youngsters might be
confused by all this, but all us old timers have a real past when
everything was different. We have a bit more "history" to go by....


If you told the truth in stating your age, I'm about a year older. So
you weren't born at a differeent time. I'm still getting real data and
real numbers. I have no reason to doubt the numbers. Each radio
amateur has a published name and address. If you'd like to randomly
sample for accuracy, start writing to a number of them.

I guess you can just chuck me into the "conspiracy nuts" group...


I'd already done so.

I don't
trust the figure, politicians, and news anymore...


That probably accounts for the pseudonym.


if I have to
appoligize for it, so be it... but don't consider it a half-felt one...


A man should never have to apologize for being a conspiracy nut. It
marks him as a rugged individualist.

Frankly, I like progress, don't much care for liars and "spin doctors."


If you don't pay attention to figures, politicians and the news, how do
you know we're making progress?

Dave K8MN

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 03:34:26 +0000, Dave Heil wrote:


John Smith wrote:

Dee:

I differ with that figure, I think it is inflated about half, this is
VERY apparent when tuning the bands... something is OBVIOUSLY wrong with
that figure. I suspect it is like our "unemployment figure" here in the
USA, that ONLY depicts those who are "drawing" unemployment, not those who
have used up their unemployment, only worked part time and are not
eligible, those who have given up on looking for work, etc...

Those figures are "cooked" and those in the know--KNOW IT!

John

You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do you
think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up some
massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!

Dave Heil





John Smith August 7th 05 02:25 AM

b.b.:

These guys and gals are telling a lot of people a lot of stuff, the
important thing is how many are deceived into believing...

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 18:04:52 -0700, b.b. wrote:


John Smith wrote:
b.b.:

Trust me, the internet gets through when CW will not...

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:24:09 -0700, b.b. wrote:


wrote:
From: b.b. on Aug 5, 4:12 pm

John Smith wrote:

Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN LIARS!"

When Hans proposed that in the brave new world of a No-Code HF License,
that one should have to take a Morse Code Test to use CW, Jim/N2EY said
that a Morse Code Test would be a -barrier- to Morse Code use. Hi!
It's always been a barrier.

True for many, Brian...and unworthy of keeping in federal
radio regulations about amateur radio.

Also true is that Jimmie has never refuted that quotation. It
may be that he has come to believe reality? Well, that may be
a bit too much to hope for...

too for


If code testing is good for people who just want to use voice modes, it
must be doubly good for those who want to use CW.

CW gets through when everything else does.


But, but, but...

You'll get told that the internet is as unreliable as cellular
telephones.



[email protected] August 7th 05 03:42 AM

From: John Smith on Aug 6, 3:36 pm

b.b.:

Trust me, the internet gets through when CW will not...


Yes, yes, John, it is useful for arranging skeds, holding rag-chews,
but the Internet NEEDS a personal computer! All the Mighty Macho
Morsemen know the "computer" is evil, high-tech bafflegab, and
THREATENS the Wetware modems now "in the service of the nation"
helping Homeland Security against wily terrorists out to destroy
their 1930s fantasy of hamme raddio and morsemanship.

Ahem..."CW gets through when nothing else will" is a hoary old
maxim (probably originating in Newington) that has been around
since the 1930s...back at a time when Claude Shannon had not
shown the radio world his marvelous Law relating bandwidth,
noise, error rate, and information throughput...back at a time
when there were only two modes in most of ham radio: CW and
old-fashioned AM voice. That "morse myth" has been engraved
on the concrete minds of hams seemingly forever.

At one time in here there was a pandemic epidemic of that
hoary hairy old morse myth over-quoted in here by the MMMs
of the deus ex machina mindset. Never mind the Latter-Day
Saints of Technology trying out PSK or 2 KHz BW SSB or fooling
with digitized voice, they, the Faithful Followers of the
Church of St. Hiram HAD to write that ad nauseum.

Brian put that hairy old hoar's breath into a TRUE
statement: "CW gets through when everything else does."
It is suprebly TRUE and without blemish.

End newsgroup history lesson.

awl end



Dee Flint August 7th 05 06:00 AM


"Dave Heil" wrote in message
ink.net...
John Smith wrote:
Dee:

Nope, never have seen all the bandwidths in as much use as back during
the
70's and early 80's, did you have a ticket back then? My gawd, those
oldtimers have forgotten what a real "pileup" means! Congestion worse
than imagined in my worst nightmare!


It's a nice story. It is a pity that t'ain't true. I've run pileups
spanning five to seven KHz for as long as six hours at a time, working
200-300 CW QSOs per hour. That happened as recently as 2000. DXing and
contesting aren't games about twenty and thirty years ago, they're about
what you've done lately. Contest scores have gotten bigger. The top
scorers work more stations than were worked two or three decades ago.
There are domestic scores now which top the world high scores of that many
years ago.

Dave K8MN


Well I can attest to the fact that it takes some real finesse and staying
power to snag the rare DX when you are only running 100 watts into a G5RV.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE



Dee Flint August 7th 05 06:01 AM


"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...

John


I have never implied that such a thing is true or that I think it.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE



John Smith August 7th 05 06:04 AM

Dee:

Darn girl, you caught me exaggerating! Again! grin

John

"Dee Flint" wrote in message
...

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...

John


I have never implied that such a thing is true or that I think it.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE




Mike Coslo August 7th 05 05:24 PM

an old friend wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:


You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!


This approach has been in evidence early on. Facts are of secondary
importance to opinion.

If we are told that there are not the number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.

If we are told that the only thing needed to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the facts as they go
along, so why do it?


It is tough to beat an anonymous man with invisible sources for
invisible facts.


- Mike KB3EIA -

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.



HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.



really? gee it falls into the same catagory as when it was said that we
ham had been banished to "useless frequencies" everything above 200M


There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.

Radio is a fairly mature field, and digital is getting there. Many
people have a pretty good idea what will likely work, based on education
and experience. And HF is an unruly beast, given to noisy and incredibly
variable conditions. We don't have to be rocket scientists to gain that
knowledge.

Just as an exercise, how much information can be carried by a 1.8 MHz
signal? How much error correction will be needed during the summer, and
how much during the winter? Why is there a difference? Why would a
wireless digital transmission system use UHF and above for data
transmission?


when was that Jim


A long, long time ago. When almost nothing was known about propagation.

Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


I don't have my CQ handy, but it took them a fair amount of time
(measured in minutes IIRC, to transmit some heavily compressed (beyond
maximum jpeg compression), and therefore really poor quality (by almost
everyones standard) pictures.

Didn't I make a challenge with some of the HF high-speed digital
believers in here to do a sked? I think the "answer" was that I was
going to steal the technology.

Not that that is likely, but how about say some of the believers among
themselves, do a proof of performance of the technology?

Or is this just one of those Wondertenna type ideas that crop up from
time to time, only to be found lacking when introduced into th e real world?

- Mike KB3EIA -

an_old_friend August 7th 05 05:42 PM


Mike Coslo wrote:
an old friend wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:


You purport to be an active radio amateur and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number of licensees? Sheesh!


This approach has been in evidence early on. Facts are of secondary
importance to opinion.

If we are told that there are not the number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.

If we are told that the only thing needed to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the facts as they go
along, so why do it?

It is tough to beat an anonymous man with invisible sources for
invisible facts.


- Mike KB3EIA -

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.



really? gee it falls into the same catagory as when it was said that we
ham had been banished to "useless frequencies" everything above 200M



There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.


agreed there are reasons of course as there were then

but it is folks like you with "it can not be Done.. therefore it should
not be disused etc. that insure it can't be done

I choose to look at a thorny problem and try to see if I can make
lemonaide, maybe brew those throns in a decent cup of Tea

Radio is a fairly mature field, and digital is getting there. Many
people have a pretty good idea what will likely work, based on education
and experience. And HF is an unruly beast, given to noisy and incredibly
variable conditions. We don't have to be rocket scientists to gain that
knowledge.

Just as an exercise, how much information can be carried by a 1.8 MHz
signal? How much error correction will be needed during the summer, and
how much during the winter? Why is there a difference? Why would a
wireless digital transmission system use UHF and above for data
transmission?


in sprict order asking I don't know, don't know, difering weather
conidctions, and becuase comercail needs relaiblity where we hams are
free to spend on trying stuff


when was that Jim


A long, long time ago. When almost nothing was known about propagation.


and if folks had listene to experts of the day what would we have today


Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


I don't have my CQ handy, but it took them a fair amount of time
(measured in minutes IIRC, to transmit some heavily compressed (beyond
maximum jpeg compression), and therefore really poor quality (by almost
everyones standard) pictures.

Didn't I make a challenge with some of the HF high-speed digital
believers in here to do a sked? I think the "answer" was that I was
going to steal the technology.

Not that that is likely, but how about say some of the believers among
themselves, do a proof of performance of the technology?

Or is this just one of those Wondertenna type ideas that crop up from
time to time, only to be found lacking when introduced into th e real world?

- Mike KB3EIA -



John Smith August 7th 05 06:31 PM

Len:

With each passing year mother nature war on the ancient brass pounders
continues. This story has been told in many different countries in many
different forms, here we are probably most familiar with "The Rabbit and
the Hare."

Slow and steady stay the course, in the end progress and determination
succeed...

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 19:42:24 -0700, LenAnderson wrote:

From: John Smith on Aug 6, 3:36 pm

b.b.:

Trust me, the internet gets through when CW will not...


Yes, yes, John, it is useful for arranging skeds, holding rag-chews,
but the Internet NEEDS a personal computer! All the Mighty Macho
Morsemen know the "computer" is evil, high-tech bafflegab, and
THREATENS the Wetware modems now "in the service of the nation"
helping Homeland Security against wily terrorists out to destroy
their 1930s fantasy of hamme raddio and morsemanship.

Ahem..."CW gets through when nothing else will" is a hoary old
maxim (probably originating in Newington) that has been around
since the 1930s...back at a time when Claude Shannon had not
shown the radio world his marvelous Law relating bandwidth,
noise, error rate, and information throughput...back at a time
when there were only two modes in most of ham radio: CW and
old-fashioned AM voice. That "morse myth" has been engraved
on the concrete minds of hams seemingly forever.

At one time in here there was a pandemic epidemic of that
hoary hairy old morse myth over-quoted in here by the MMMs
of the deus ex machina mindset. Never mind the Latter-Day
Saints of Technology trying out PSK or 2 KHz BW SSB or fooling
with digitized voice, they, the Faithful Followers of the
Church of St. Hiram HAD to write that ad nauseum.

Brian put that hairy old hoar's breath into a TRUE
statement: "CW gets through when everything else does."
It is suprebly TRUE and without blemish.

End newsgroup history lesson.

awl end



[email protected] August 7th 05 08:46 PM

From: Mike Coslo on Aug 7, 9:24 am

an old friend wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:




BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.


Why do you keep beating this Dead Horse on "rapid transmission
of high speed digital transmission?"

Shannon's Law is absolute, proven by experiment, embraced by all
the OTHER radio services. Shannon's Law is 58 years old and
mature, both de facto and de jure.

"Vagaries of wave propagation phenomena" [at HF due to ionospheric
changes] has been well-known to academia, the commercial and
government users of HF since the 1930s. The most well-known
(to non-amateur communications on HF) is "selective fading,"
a relatively short-duration change of BOTH amplitude and phase
over a relatively narrow band-span. In commercial SSB (using
12 KHz bandwidth format of four 3 KHz separate voice-grade
circuits) this was much reduced in its effect by simply
sending TWO tone-pair sets for each AFSK TTY circuit, the pair
separated by about 1 to 2 KHz; voting circuitry at the receive
end picked out the "best" received signal. That reduced at
least 95 percent of the error effects of selective fading.

The "charge" that high-speed data transmission is "impossible"
due to some (unquantified) "phase changes" has been thrashed
and discarded by at least two HF digital voice transmission
methods, one of which (DRM or Digital Radio Mondial) has been
in test for five years and is now heard over two dozen HF
broadcasts. DRM can carry binaural ("stereo") audio. The
bandwidth occupancy is NO GREATER than a conventional monoaural
AM transmission. The key to such untilization of a relatively
narrow bandwidth for higher throughput lies in examination of
the environment and using coding theory to fit that environment.

Will it send "high-quality" digital pictures in data mode?
YES, but at relatively slow transmission rates depending on
the bandwidth used/allowed/allocated. Shannon's Law is
irrefutable. It will NOT carry "live, feature-length
motion pictures." [that seems to be your goal but that goal
is not possible to attain] It can send high-density image
data without problem, with a minimum of error, but a cost
of waiting a relatively long time for each image.

There are OTHER forms of on-the-fly determination of "the
vagaries of propagation" [on HF]. The U.S. government has
been using a standardized method for about five years now
called Automatic Link Establishment or ALE. While perhaps
not adapatable to amateur radio HF applications, it is a
system for continuously monitoring signal quality, a scan
of other predetermined frequencies to check their quality,
and automatic changeover to whichever predetermined
frequency signal quality is best. ALE on HF has been
devised and tested expressly for HF beginning about two
decades ago.

Both of the above mainly-HF systems have been little
publicized in the amateur radio press. That is a fault of
the amateur radio publishers, not the system. It is NOT
the simplistic basic-level radio theory (and coding theory)
which can be easily digested in a single reading sit-down.
They require THINKING, "non-traditional" thinking away from
what had been theory of a half century ago and propagated
as "state-of-the-art" long after its first appearance.

On pushing throughput to much greater rates in relatively
narrow bandwidths, consider the advances in amateur radio
HF techniques over the last half century. In the 1950s the
"standard" RTTY frequency-shift was 850 Hz for 60 WPM
TTY 5-level coding. Today it is 170 Hz for 100 WPM 8-level
TTY coding. AM voice used to take at least 6 KHz bandwidth
but single-channel suppressed-carrier sideband cut that in
half plus reducing the old AM heterodynes from CW carriers.
PKS31 innovated and devised in the UK, tested in Europe,
was a 30 WPM RTTY system using a bandwidth no larger than
a conventional on-off keyed "CW" (morse code) signal. Those
are now "accepted" methods because the amateur radio press
has publicized it.

However, in OTHER areas, look at the common, ordinary PC
modem operating with Plain Old Telephone System (POTS)
lines of 3 KHz bandwidth. The data rate over the "56K"
modem is about NINETEEN TIMES FASTER than "straight"
analog AM. MILLIONS are used each day in the USA alone.
You don't look into the WHY of such a large increase in
throughput and I don't understand why you don't. The
answer lies in combinatorial modulation PLUS some rather
simple coding theory to increase the data bit rate to
a top of 56 THOUSAND bits per second. The modulation of
the modem's audio tone carrier is a combination of AM
and PM. It does NOT violate Shannon's Law. Such an
EQUIVALENT system could be applied to HF (it is in the
TORs or Teletype Over Radio outboard boxes) but that can
be incorporated into an HF transceiver as an integral
part. All of the radio amateurs, duly licensed as part
of the "nation's service" and complete with federally-
authorized call signs, seem to be satisfied with the LAZY
way out...let someone else do the innovation and design.
They won't "accept" it until the product ad appears in
QST ready for shipment, has reviews from the "ARRL Lab"
and all can argue over the ad specifications. Packaged
innovation ready to go. Done by OTHERS. Everything for
"the bands" (meaning only HF). "Standardized." :-(

I've brought up "scaling" of data rates before but that
seems to be a non-understanding topic. It isn't in a
convenient QST or CQ or QEX article so it isn't "accepted."
Yet SCALING is done (has been for decades) in antenna
testing as well as data rate. Look at high-definition
television broadcasting that is now phasing in to
consumers. The image throughput is more than doubled PLUS
extra data is sent for quadraphonic sound (not just "stereo")
and closed-captioning in a channel space NO LARGER than
(in the USA) 6 MHz. It's a three times REDUCTION in
bandwidth...PLUS more than double the amount of video
data. The secret is in the MPEG (Motion Picture Experts
Group) digitized video data coding and compression. Not
only that, the image/sound quality is very nearly FREE
of all the "propagation vagaries" due to phase and analog
changes from moving reflections, greater immunity to
random noise (such as from tools or appliances). SOMETHING
EQUIVALENT might be done for audio on HF...perhaps scaling
down the present-day SSB bandwidth of about 2.1 KHz to just
700 Hz or maybe 1 KHz...more than double the band
occupancy for voice signals and with much greater immunity
to "flutter" and selective fading effects.

Look at the WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) now in
use by the hundreds of thousands daily, perhaps a dozen
or more in the local vicinity of other WLANs...AND in the
same band as cordless telephones (dozens more) and high-
data-rate systems such as CCTV monitors or music distribution
(dozens more). Each is NOT INTERFERED WITH by all the other
local systems, all can operate as if the others did not
exist. The secret to their success is Distributed Spread
Spectrum techniques plus coding theory. Every system
EXISTS in the same bandwidth yet each is separate and
undisturbed by others. No "heterodynes," no need for
fancy, expensive filters-in-the-IF, or ultimate
refinements of decades-old conventional techniques.

But, you don't seem to care about such possibilities or
even getting a hint of what might be possible. You, like
way too many others will only "accept" something if
someone else has worked it out and it is a PRODUCT on
the market. Then you can sit around and natter about the
advertising phrases and argue someone's "lab reviews"
and sound like "expert radiomen" of "extra" class when
you don't know dink about its insides. Intellectual SLOTH.
LAZINESS. All you wanna do is play wid yer raddios and
pretend to radio greatness. shrug

dit bit



Mike Coslo August 7th 05 10:48 PM

an_old_friend wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:


There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.



agreed there are reasons of course as there were then

but it is folks like you with "it can not be Done.. therefore it should
not be disused etc. that insure it can't be done

I choose to look at a thorny problem and try to see if I can make
lemonaide, maybe brew those throns in a decent cup of Tea

Radio is a fairly mature field, and digital is getting there. Many
people have a pretty good idea what will likely work, based on education
and experience. And HF is an unruly beast, given to noisy and incredibly
variable conditions. We don't have to be rocket scientists to gain that
knowledge.

Just as an exercise, how much information can be carried by a 1.8 MHz
signal? How much error correction will be needed during the summer, and
how much during the winter? Why is there a difference? Why would a
wireless digital transmission system use UHF and above for data
transmission?



in sprict order asking I don't know, don't know, difering weather
conidctions, and becuase comercail needs relaiblity where we hams are
free to spend on trying stuff


Yep, that is what I figured.

- Mike KB3EIA - -

Mike Coslo August 7th 05 10:53 PM

wrote:
From: Mike Coslo on Aug 7, 9:24 am


an old friend wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:





BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method that works, but it is pretty

slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


HF will never be the place for high speed digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.



Why do you keep beating this Dead Horse on "rapid transmission
of high speed digital transmission?"


Dave wrote that last. But I agree with him

And the answer to "why" is that other people bring it up. So I answer.

Is that not allowed?

The "charge" that high-speed data transmission is "impossible"


Who said that? It is most certainly possible. We just have to be
patient, very patient.


- Mike KB3EIA -

Dan/W4NTI August 7th 05 11:27 PM

Of course, but Communism is done, right??? hi hi.

Russia has NOT dropped Morse. Nor has most of the ex Eastern Block
countries.

Years ago when I was in Germany in the US Army it was decided to fire back
up on CW training. The reason was because the Ruskies were having a field
day trashing our HF nets. We were on AM/SSB/RATT (RTTY), and they would
get close, or right on top of them on CW.

It was a total flop because hardly anyone in the US Military new Morse well
enough to copy it.

Point is this. The Russians and their close neighbors are smart enough to
realize Morse is a worth while mode and will continue its use.

Dan/W4NTI

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dan:

What communist counties do is almost always in the interest of the shadow
gov't really running the country. That is supposed to be surprising?

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:06:36 +0000, Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.

Dan/W4NTI

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dave:

Well, there is debate and argument for good and reason, and then there
is
not...

Then there is religious devotion to a test which serves only a select
few...

It would be interesting if the powers that be were to decide in keeping
CW--and then explain why they alone in the world community made that
decision, frankly, I would be happy not to have that task...

There are plentiful examples of insanity in this world... that old book
which bears the title something like "The Emperor Wore No Clothes" is as
meaningful today as the day it was written...

John

"Dave Heil" wrote in message
nk.net...
John Smith wrote:
N2EY:

Nice attempt at "spin doctoring" for the weak minded...
It is like fishing, you bait your hook, toss it in the water and see
what
bites...

John

At least that's how you do it, "John".

Dave K8MN

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 09:36:54 -0700, N2EY wrote:


John Smith wrote:

Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old
key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN
LIARS!"


Omission of relevant facts can be a form of lying.

Here's the whole story:

I read that bit of W5YI propaganda, and also the original articles in
"200 Meters And Down" and the QSTs of the time.

(have you done so?)

The referenced article does not give all the relevant facts.

For one thing, the article claims that "higher speed" code testing has
been
used to "limit the number of hams since the very beginning of ham
licensing".
The fact is that all US hams were licensed in the US by 1912, 24 years
before the 1936 happenings cited. The code test speed after 1919 was
10
wpm, and the 1936 increase to 13 wpm - hardly a quantum leap.

To get a clear picture of what was actually happening, it is important
to
understand what ham radio was like back in those days. After WW1, ham
radio
almost ceased to exist. It was brought back to life by the dedicated
efforts
of a few enthusiasts.

Amateur radio was not even recognized by international treaty until
1927. The
1927 treaty resulted in stricter new rules and much-narrowed bands.

By 1929 there were about 16,000 hams in the US. Almost
all of them were on the 160, 80, 40, and 20 meter bands. A typical ham
transmitter was a self-controlled power oscillator, and a typical ham
receiver
was a three tube regenerative. Sure, more advanced techniques existed,
but few
hams could afford them in thos Great Depression years.

Code skill was important in almost all radio services. 10 wpm was not
considered as anything like professional level - 25 or 30 wpm was more
like it. (This was with semiautomatic keys for sending and manual
typewriters for
highspeed copy).

1929 saw two big changes to ham radio. The treaties signed in 1927
came
into
effect, which cut deeply into the 40 and 20 meter hambands (70% of 40
was lost, and 80% of 20). The treaties also required much cleaner
signals from ham rigs. The Great Depression followed soon afterwards.

But the Depression and the new regs had a surprising effect on ham
radio. The
number of hams took a sharp upturn in the early thirties. By 1935
there
were
over 46,000 hams - almost TRIPLING the number of just five years
earlier! But the turnover in amateur radio was approaching 40% per
year.

This meant that most hams were raw newcomers, with relatively little
technical
knowledge or operating skills. A ham with 5 years on the air was a
veteran, one with 10 years was a grizzled old timer. Problems of
interference and crowding abounded. Complaints from other services
threatened the existence of ham radio.

The problem was that thousands of newcomers were learning just enough
to pass
the tests, assembling simple stations with little understanding of
proper
design, adjustment, or operation, and putting them on the air. Many of
these
newcomers lost interest quickly, particularly when the limitations of
their
knowledge and skills became apparent. The newly formed FCC was
concerned, as
was the ARRL.

The action proposed by the ARRL to the FCC was in two parts: Raise the
code
speed SLIGHTLY, (10 to 12-1/2 wpm) and make the written test more
comprehensive. The changes to the written tests are all but ignored by
the NCI
article.

The goal was NOT to limit the total number of hams, nor to hinder or
deter anyone from getting a license, but to control the flood of
newcomers, and make sure that the new folks had the necessary skills
and knowledge.

Look at the complete picture, and the action of the FCC in 1936 makes
sense.
73 de Jim, N2EY






Dan/W4NTI August 7th 05 11:29 PM


"an old friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.


and you WANT the US to keep such company


Absolutely I want us to keep such company.

Hows the old saying go? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.

Dan/W4NTI




John Smith August 7th 05 11:38 PM

Dan:

Too bad the americans had not developed HS Digital Checksum Error
Corrected Voice Transmission Packet methods over spread spectrum... could
have filtered the CW audio and went right on, would have pi$$ed 'em off in
style! Oh well, too late for back then, but today we can!

John

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:27:35 +0000, Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Of course, but Communism is done, right??? hi hi.

Russia has NOT dropped Morse. Nor has most of the ex Eastern Block
countries.

Years ago when I was in Germany in the US Army it was decided to fire back
up on CW training. The reason was because the Ruskies were having a field
day trashing our HF nets. We were on AM/SSB/RATT (RTTY), and they would
get close, or right on top of them on CW.

It was a total flop because hardly anyone in the US Military new Morse well
enough to copy it.

Point is this. The Russians and their close neighbors are smart enough to
realize Morse is a worth while mode and will continue its use.

Dan/W4NTI

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dan:

What communist counties do is almost always in the interest of the shadow
gov't really running the country. That is supposed to be surprising?

John

On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 00:06:36 +0000, Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.

Dan/W4NTI

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Dave:

Well, there is debate and argument for good and reason, and then there
is
not...

Then there is religious devotion to a test which serves only a select
few...

It would be interesting if the powers that be were to decide in keeping
CW--and then explain why they alone in the world community made that
decision, frankly, I would be happy not to have that task...

There are plentiful examples of insanity in this world... that old book
which bears the title something like "The Emperor Wore No Clothes" is as
meaningful today as the day it was written...

John

"Dave Heil" wrote in message
nk.net...
John Smith wrote:
N2EY:

Nice attempt at "spin doctoring" for the weak minded...
It is like fishing, you bait your hook, toss it in the water and see
what
bites...

John

At least that's how you do it, "John".

Dave K8MN

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 09:36:54 -0700, N2EY wrote:


John Smith wrote:

Here the NCI offers proof and spells it out, just in case these old
key
tappers are in danger of pulling some wool over your eyes...

http://www.nocode.org/articles/filter.html

As some have noted in the past, "There are liars, and there are DAMN
LIARS!"


Omission of relevant facts can be a form of lying.

Here's the whole story:

I read that bit of W5YI propaganda, and also the original articles in
"200 Meters And Down" and the QSTs of the time.

(have you done so?)

The referenced article does not give all the relevant facts.

For one thing, the article claims that "higher speed" code testing has
been
used to "limit the number of hams since the very beginning of ham
licensing".
The fact is that all US hams were licensed in the US by 1912, 24 years
before the 1936 happenings cited. The code test speed after 1919 was
10
wpm, and the 1936 increase to 13 wpm - hardly a quantum leap.

To get a clear picture of what was actually happening, it is important
to
understand what ham radio was like back in those days. After WW1, ham
radio
almost ceased to exist. It was brought back to life by the dedicated
efforts
of a few enthusiasts.

Amateur radio was not even recognized by international treaty until
1927. The
1927 treaty resulted in stricter new rules and much-narrowed bands.

By 1929 there were about 16,000 hams in the US. Almost
all of them were on the 160, 80, 40, and 20 meter bands. A typical ham
transmitter was a self-controlled power oscillator, and a typical ham
receiver
was a three tube regenerative. Sure, more advanced techniques existed,
but few
hams could afford them in thos Great Depression years.

Code skill was important in almost all radio services. 10 wpm was not
considered as anything like professional level - 25 or 30 wpm was more
like it. (This was with semiautomatic keys for sending and manual
typewriters for
highspeed copy).

1929 saw two big changes to ham radio. The treaties signed in 1927
came
into
effect, which cut deeply into the 40 and 20 meter hambands (70% of 40
was lost, and 80% of 20). The treaties also required much cleaner
signals from ham rigs. The Great Depression followed soon afterwards.

But the Depression and the new regs had a surprising effect on ham
radio. The
number of hams took a sharp upturn in the early thirties. By 1935
there
were
over 46,000 hams - almost TRIPLING the number of just five years
earlier! But the turnover in amateur radio was approaching 40% per
year.

This meant that most hams were raw newcomers, with relatively little
technical
knowledge or operating skills. A ham with 5 years on the air was a
veteran, one with 10 years was a grizzled old timer. Problems of
interference and crowding abounded. Complaints from other services
threatened the existence of ham radio.

The problem was that thousands of newcomers were learning just enough
to pass
the tests, assembling simple stations with little understanding of
proper
design, adjustment, or operation, and putting them on the air. Many of
these
newcomers lost interest quickly, particularly when the limitations of
their
knowledge and skills became apparent. The newly formed FCC was
concerned, as
was the ARRL.

The action proposed by the ARRL to the FCC was in two parts: Raise the
code
speed SLIGHTLY, (10 to 12-1/2 wpm) and make the written test more
comprehensive. The changes to the written tests are all but ignored by
the NCI
article.

The goal was NOT to limit the total number of hams, nor to hinder or
deter anyone from getting a license, but to control the flood of
newcomers, and make sure that the new folks had the necessary skills
and knowledge.

Look at the complete picture, and the action of the FCC in 1936 makes
sense.
73 de Jim, N2EY





[email protected] August 7th 05 11:47 PM

From: John Smith on Sun 7 Aug 2005 10:31

Len:

With each passing year mother nature war on the ancient brass pounders
continues. This story has been told in many different countries in many
different forms, here we are probably most familiar with "The Rabbit and
the Hare."

Slow and steady stay the course, in the end progress and determination
succeed...


Thanks for a mediocre Obi Wan Kenobi imitation. sigh

Problem is, I ain't Luke Skywalker...but all the pro-coders
think they are Dearth Voder.

Tsk. I was giving you only a little insight how things
were IN HERE about 6 to 7 years ago. Was no "John Smith"
in here then.

obi wan



an_old_friend August 8th 05 12:00 AM


Dan/W4NTI wrote:
"an old friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.


and you WANT the US to keep such company


Absolutely I want us to keep such company.

Hows the old saying go? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.


Nice comeback I honestly didn't think you had it in you, well done



Dan/W4NTI



John Smith August 8th 05 12:44 AM

Len:

As long as evil exists in the world, there will always be a "John Smith"
to oppose it--a thousand deaths and the spirit of John Smith will live on.
This man is invincible and immortal, death is only a tunnel to the next
life, and to pick up the fight of evil men once again!

We stand at a unique time in history. The "Cult of the arrl" has fallen,
yet refuses to die an easy death. The ancient cloistered walls of blood
sucking amateurs is being thrown open to air the uncounted ancient pharts
which have polluted these halls. The evil deeds which have been done here
haunt the walls like insane spirits of ill will and dangerous plans.

The candle of progress threatens to cast light into even the darkest
corners of this ancient monastery. Those ancient ones (amateurs) who have
halted progress and kept radio as their personal "Moose Lodge" will have
their names despised and stricken from the records as a movement on the
scale of a "Biblical Event" slays the evil spirits who have brought radio
to its knees and sucked the blood from it veins. The stake is poised over
these black hearts of these evil men and the mallet begins its deadly
plunge towards its target...

A bright day is coming, "God Bless Amateur Radio!" We move towards the
day when extras and chicken banders will live in harmony!

Those brave men who still exist move to pick up their light-sabers and
enter the fray....

On the 'morrow we pray the battlefield be littered and deep with the
bodies of our enemies...

Luke Skywalker --AKA-- John Smith

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 15:47:28 -0700, LenAnderson wrote:

From: John Smith on Sun 7 Aug 2005 10:31

Len:

With each passing year mother nature war on the ancient brass pounders
continues. This story has been told in many different countries in many
different forms, here we are probably most familiar with "The Rabbit and
the Hare."

Slow and steady stay the course, in the end progress and determination
succeed...


Thanks for a mediocre Obi Wan Kenobi imitation. sigh

Problem is, I ain't Luke Skywalker...but all the pro-coders
think they are Dearth Voder.

Tsk. I was giving you only a little insight how things
were IN HERE about 6 to 7 years ago. Was no "John Smith"
in here then.

obi wan



[email protected] August 8th 05 01:57 AM

From: John Smith on Aug 7, 3:38 pm

Dan:

Too bad the americans had not developed HS Digital Checksum Error
Corrected Voice Transmission Packet methods over spread spectrum... could
have filtered the CW audio and went right on, would have pi$$ed 'em off in
style! Oh well, too late for back then, but today we can!


The only thing WRONG with this back-and-forth is Dan's claim
of Disability from Vietnam. The Vietnam War ended in 1975,
THIRTY YEARS AGO. Had he been in communications with the
military in Yurp "after" that, he wouldn't have any "disability"
since he would be on active duty. If Dan Jeswald got out of
the military DUE to warfare in Vietnam, then his personal
experience from Yurp military exercises is THIRTY YEARS OLD.

Present-day, and back in the FIRST Gulf War times, U.S. land
forces most definitely have COMSEC (COMmunications SECurity)
which pretty well defeats old-style jammers. The first instance
of that was the AN/PRC-119 family, "SINCGARS," which is a
selectable digital-voice/data, single frequency or frequency
hopper on 30 to 88 MHz. It became operational in the U.S.
Army in 1989, first sets to Army in Korea. At frequency hops
of 10 per second, it is virtually immune to standard (old-style)
jamming and very resistant to "noise jamming." [it's damn hard
to detect, let alone jam] Later ("SIP") versions available by
the SECOND Gulf War ("Revenge of the Shrub") had fully built-in
COMSEC (voice scrambler no longer an external box) and half
the size of the original manpack. A QUARTER MILLION R/T sets
(manpack, vehicular, airborne) have been produced to the end
of 2004 and all fielded.

The land forces use a variety of radios and pieces of the EM
spectrum, NOT so totally dependent on HF as Dan would have
you believe. For MOST of the message transmissions, those
go through VHF, UHF, troposcatter, and microwave radio systems
with microwave dominating the major relays through military
comm sats...one reason why CENCOM could command the 2nd Gulf
War from Florida.

As to HF radios in the military land forces, the AN/PRC-104
family (20 W manpack through 400 W PEP vehicular) is a synth
frequency control unit for a full 3 to 30 MHz span and with
automatic antenna tuner (even in the manpack!) and direct
connections to COMSEC boxes. Designed and built by Hughes
Aircraft Ground Division, it became operational first in
1986. It will be replaced by the AN/PRC-150 family designed
by Harris, called by them "Falcon II." The "150" is more
resistant to jamming and has built-in COMSEC.

What these very amateur "military analysts" don't understand
is that the RUSSIAN comm equipment "sold" to Iraq in the
1st Gulf War ALSO HAD SS-LIKE RF SCRAMBLING. That was back
in 1990, 15 years ago. [they also had very Russian armor
in which they carried those NON-morse-code radios]

As to the alleged "CW intel from behind the lines" BS spouted
by a few in here back some 6 to 7 years, the U.S. Army had
the (now obsolete and replaced with newer) UHF portables
with built-in data, "chiclet" keyboards, LCD mini-screens
and with three different portable antennas to shoot to the
comm sats or to orbiting comm relay aircraft. None of this
nonsense of easy-to-DF HF slow-speed "CW" where the RF
was spraying in all directions from omnidirectional antennas.
Data rate then was 1200 BPS and the antennas directional.

Whatever the Russians do in amateur regulations is a FAR cry
from what they field in their army...as modern as any even
if they have meager maintenance and not as much of the good
stuff as the US military has. "WE" know HOW to jam them,
or at least most of what they have for radios...the reverse
has NOT been true for at least 15 years.

You can take my word of it or not. I didn't "stop" working
in communications for any part of DoD after my Honorable
Discharge in 1960. I've played with SINCGARS and entered
enough hopsets through its touch-screen front panel. I would
have personally liked to work on the PRC-104, at least in
operational testing, but other contract work called. What
I've remarked on in public here is FROM public information
that anyone can get, on paper or electronically.

Instead, we have all these other "military analysts" claiming
ten kinds of "knowledge" (some allegedly personal) which, in
all likelyhood, comes from Popular Mechanics or old TV shows.
Even the "FAS" (Foundation of American Scientists) is behind
the times with old data from the 1980s. Better than nothing,
I suppose. One thing for sure, the Russian amateur radio
regs are NOT formulated to "build up a pool of trained
morsemen" to serve in their military for their national
whatevers.

Geez, if all these renowned AMATEUR military radio experts
were telling like it is, the USAF recruiting posters would
feature "Air Crews For B-17s and B-24s" and the USA would
still have sojer pictures with pre-1940 'dish' helmets
and lace-up leggings a la 1940. :-)

Unless something new has come up, WT Docket 05-235 is NOT
concerned whether or not the Russkies still test for morse
code. The FCC doesn't regulate in Russia...any more than
Stebie Wundermurine "regulates" Somalian radio.

Whatever Russia cares to do after WRC-03 is THEIR concern,
not ours. We and the Brits have to help them raise their
mini-subs or record their interceptor comms as they shoot
down Korean civil airliners (played back in front of the
UN some time ago). On the other hand, a regular columnist
at ANTENNEX website is Russian and they are NOT sticking
with 1950s technology these days.

But, there's some ruff-and-tuff commie sympathizers talking
at ya, John, and don't nobody step in THEIR way! :-)

Dosvedanya droog Ivan

day off



Mike Coslo August 8th 05 01:58 AM

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
"an old friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.


and you WANT the US to keep such company


Absolutely I want us to keep such company.

Hows the old saying go? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.


It the other way around, Dan: Keep your friends close, and your enemies
closer.

But otherwise you are spot-on.

Ideologies aside, there is one big difference between their country and
ours. During WWII, they were brought to the brink of existence, and
survival was not at all certain. That has perhaps changed their outlook
on communications in extremis.

Here, we "know" that in emergencies that we will use cell phones and
the Internet, and all will be well. For some reason or other, they think
that perhaps a time will come when technology can fail. Then whatchya got?

- Mike KB3EIA -

[email protected] August 8th 05 02:01 AM

From: John Smith on Aug 7, 3:43 pm

Len:

I await the day when the arrl (ancient retarded religious league) goes the
way of the dodo, or else, is taken over by under 40 year olds!

We need someone to crack a window and let some fresh air in!


Absolutely cannot be done unless "we" become MEMBERS and
"work for change from the 'inside'." [repeated warnings
from Dee Flint in here]

Problem is, the entrenched officials and BoD are RESISTANT
to "change from within" as evident from their regular BoD
Meeting Minutes given on their websites. They do things
THEIR way and expect all to fall-in and pop-to. After all,
they "represent all amateurs in the USA" and say so up
front.

I'll have to check out the QST advertising page on the website,
see if they have a new "Publisher's Sworn Statement" on their
membership numbers. ARRL have never had more than a quarter
of all licensed U.S. radio amateurs and, at the end of 2004,
had only about 20 percent of them according to membership
numbers they gave.

However, in THIS newsgroup, all of the PCTA extras bow down
and accept all League words as sacrosanct. After all, Hiram
Went To Washington right after the end of WW1 and "saved
ham radio" all by hisself. For that all are supposed to
forever show gratitude and obediance to the ARRL, even 86
years after that "fact"!

Something to consider: The present elected President of
the ARRL was a former salesman. [see connection? :-) ]

ant how



[email protected] August 8th 05 02:06 AM

Mike Coslo wrote:
an old friend wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:


You purport to be an active radio amateur
and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there
are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in
collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number
of licensees? Sheesh!


We know pretty closely how many individuals there are with
current (unexpired) FCC-issued amateur radio licenses - about
664,000

What we don't know is how many of those ~664,000 fall into
the following categories:

- Inactive due to being dead
- Inactive due to being seriously sick or injured
- Inactive due to loss of interest
- Inactive due to lack of resources (time, money, space, etc.)
- Slightly active
- Moderately active
- Very active

Worse, the definitions of the last three categories are entirely
subjective. If a ham is on the air 100 hours per year, is that
ham slightly, moderately, or very active?

This approach has been in evidence early on.
Facts are of secondary importance to opinion.


To some folks, their opinions *are* facts.

If we are told that there are not the
number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If
that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.


No, it's just somebody's opinion.

If we are told that the only thing needed
to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.


Actually, you *can* hook up a 56K modem to your HF rig and
"go digital". Doesn't mean it will work....

Note that almost all dialup modems have the ability to
operate at less than 56K. Backwards compatibility and
all that. Some will go all the way back to 300 baud.

If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.


Ham radio has always been "dying" - and always being reborn.

I was around back in 1968 when some folks said that 'incentive
licensing' would 'kill amateur radio'. Those folks said it was
completely unreasonable to expect or even ask the average ham
to get an Advanced, let alone an Extra.

Yet in the decade after those new requirements were put in place, the
number of US hams grew from about 250,000 to about 350,000.
And that was before the VE system and published question pools.

Sure, some of that was helped by the Bash books, but there were
no Bash books for 20 wpm Morse Code.

You can't argue with someone who makes up the
facts as they go along, so why do it?


Exactly!

It is tough to beat an anonymous man with
invisible sources for
invisible facts.


Yup. Like folks who claim that 57% is not a majority...

BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital
transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method
that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.


So send small files!

HF will never be the place for high speed
digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject
to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.


A lot depends on what you mean by "high speed", and what
resources you can use.

For example, if you're allowed to use wide-enough bandwidths,
all sorts of stuff is possible.

If you're allowed to use very high power and high gain antennas,
all sorts of stuff is possible.

If you can separate the transmit and receive sites and/or frequencies
so that full duplex is achieved, all sorts of
things are possible.

If your setup has adaptive features so that it evaluates
the path characteristics and adapts the modulation and
frequencies used to conditions, all sorts of things are
possible.

Of course most of the above is simply not practical for
the average ham, and/or is incompatible with current US
regulations.

really? gee it falls into the same catagory as
when it was said that we
ham had been banished to "useless frequencies"
everything above 200M


Hams were never banished to everything above 200 meters.

What happened was that amateur stations were required to use
only wavelengths of 200 meters and below. But every station had
a specified wavelength. If a ham wanted to use, say, 159 meters,
s/he needed a station license that said "159 meters".

In 1912 there wasn't much known about how HF propagation actually
worked. The 'useless' idea came from extrapolation of what happened on
longer wavelengths. The ionosphere's role was not
even guessed at by "professionals in radio".

There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital
HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that
caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.

Radio is a fairly mature field, and digital is getting there.
Many
people have a pretty good idea what will likely work, based on education
and experience. And HF is an unruly beast, given to noisy and incredibly
variable conditions. We don't have to be rocket scientists to gain that
knowledge.

Just as an exercise, how much information can be carried by a 1.8 MHz
signal? How much error correction will be needed during the summer, and
how much during the winter? Why is there a difference? Why would a
wireless digital transmission system use UHF and above for data
transmission?


All very good questions!

when was that Jim


A long, long time ago. When almost nothing was known about propagation.

Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


I don't have my CQ handy, but it took them a fair amount of time
(measured in minutes IIRC, to transmit some heavily compressed (beyond
maximum jpeg compression), and therefore really poor quality (by almost
everyones standard) pictures.

Didn't I make a challenge with some of the HF high-speed digital
believers in here to do a sked? I think the "answer" was that I was
going to steal the technology.


You can't steal vaporware.

Not that that is likely, but how about say some of the
believers among
themselves, do a proof of performance of the technology?

Or is this just one of those Wondertenna type ideas that crop
up from
time to time, only to be found lacking when introduced
into the real world?

Heck, Mike, you want *practical* stuff?

73 de Jim, N2EY


Dee Flint August 8th 05 02:41 AM


"Dan/W4NTI" wrote in message
nk.net...

"an old friend" wrote in message
oups.com...

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
Minor correction "John Smith". If the USA decided not to drop CW, it
would NOT be alone in world. Russia and her ex Soviet Block nations
have
all decided to keep CW.


and you WANT the US to keep such company


Absolutely I want us to keep such company.

Hows the old saying go? Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.

Dan/W4NTI



Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE



b.b. August 8th 05 02:57 AM


wrote:
From: John Smith on Aug 7, 3:43 pm

Len:

I await the day when the arrl (ancient retarded religious league) goes the
way of the dodo, or else, is taken over by under 40 year olds!

We need someone to crack a window and let some fresh air in!


Absolutely cannot be done unless "we" become MEMBERS and
"work for change from the 'inside'." [repeated warnings
from Dee Flint in here]


The ARRL isn't interested in change from within, either. I've been a
disenfranchised member for 18 years.

Problem is, the entrenched officials and BoD are RESISTANT
to "change from within" as evident from their regular BoD
Meeting Minutes given on their websites. They do things
THEIR way and expect all to fall-in and pop-to. After all,
they "represent all amateurs in the USA" and say so up
front.


Yep, they represent me.

I'll have to check out the QST advertising page on the website,
see if they have a new "Publisher's Sworn Statement" on their
membership numbers. ARRL have never had more than a quarter
of all licensed U.S. radio amateurs and, at the end of 2004,
had only about 20 percent of them according to membership
numbers they gave.

However, in THIS newsgroup, all of the PCTA extras bow down
and accept all League words as sacrosanct. After all, Hiram
Went To Washington right after the end of WW1 and "saved
ham radio" all by hisself. For that all are supposed to
forever show gratitude and obediance to the ARRL, even 86
years after that "fact"!

Something to consider: The present elected President of
the ARRL was a former salesman. [see connection? :-) ]

ant how


Shoes or used cars?


Mike Coslo August 8th 05 03:26 AM

wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:

an old friend wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:

Mike Coslo wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:



You purport to be an active radio amateur
and you didn't even have a
realistic idea of how many hams there
are in the United States? Do
you think the FCC and ARRL are in
collusion and they've whipped up
some massive coverup of the number
of licensees? Sheesh!



We know pretty closely how many individuals there are with
current (unexpired) FCC-issued amateur radio licenses - about
664,000

What we don't know is how many of those ~664,000 fall into
the following categories:

- Inactive due to being dead
- Inactive due to being seriously sick or injured
- Inactive due to loss of interest
- Inactive due to lack of resources (time, money, space, etc.)
- Slightly active
- Moderately active
- Very active

Worse, the definitions of the last three categories are entirely
subjective. If a ham is on the air 100 hours per year, is that
ham slightly, moderately, or very active?


How do other systems work? I suspect that they count licensees, and
work with that. At renewal time, adjustments are made.


This approach has been in evidence early on.
Facts are of secondary importance to opinion.



To some folks, their opinions *are* facts.


To too many.....


If we are told that there are not the
number of hams claimed on the
database, then that is the truth. If
that means that the FCC is lying,
that is the truth.



No, it's just somebody's opinion.


yup


If we are told that the only thing needed
to go digital on HF is to
hook up that 56K modem to the rig, then that is the truth.



Actually, you *can* hook up a 56K modem to your HF rig and
"go digital". Doesn't mean it will work....

Note that almost all dialup modems have the ability to
operate at less than 56K. Backwards compatibility and
all that. Some will go all the way back to 300 baud.


If we are told that Ham radio is dying, then that is true.



Ham radio has always been "dying" - and always being reborn.


Yeah, just like "The Family" Always under attack, always going
downhill" and on and on.

Reminds me of the radio ads for stores that are having their "Biggest
Sale Ever!" The next week that are having another biggest sale ever.
Seems if we just wait a short while, they'll be giving the stuff away,
or paying us to take it away.

I was around back in 1968 when some folks said that 'incentive
licensing' would 'kill amateur radio'. Those folks said it was
completely unreasonable to expect or even ask the average ham
to get an Advanced, let alone an Extra.

Yet in the decade after those new requirements were put in place, the
number of US hams grew from about 250,000 to about 350,000.
And that was before the VE system and published question pools.

Sure, some of that was helped by the Bash books, but there were
no Bash books for 20 wpm Morse Code.


Bash Keys???


You can't argue with someone who makes up the
facts as they go along, so why do it?



Exactly!


It is tough to beat an anonymous man with
invisible sources for
invisible facts.



Yup. Like folks who claim that 57% is not a majority...


they were just like, sayin' 8^)


BTW, CQ has an article on HF digital
transmission. Seems that they have
got it all wrong too. They have a method
that works, but it is pretty
slow for images (or files) of any appreciable size.



So send small files!


Well, yeah! But if we are going to have a new mode, it needs to have
some good features. They can be speed, quality, or even coolness (say
the digital form of Hell-field)

So here we have digital transmission in a sort of competition with
SSTV. The images have to be pretty small, and most have to be compressed
to the point that they are pretty poor compared to a good SSTV image. So
the only advantage that I can see for this digital method is when the
signal is weak and noisy. Then the digital image will be better. Of
course the patience of Job will be needed for all the error correction
needed


HF will never be the place for high speed
digital transmission. There
is too much noise and signals are subject
to the vagaries of wave
propagation phenomena.



A lot depends on what you mean by "high speed", and what
resources you can use.

For example, if you're allowed to use wide-enough bandwidths,
all sorts of stuff is possible.


Sure. I think some people are believing that I am saying this is
impossible. It is not impossible. But not very practical. I'd have to
work it out, but I think there are some ham segments where we'd need
more bandwidth than is alloted

If you're allowed to use very high power and high gain antennas,
all sorts of stuff is possible.


A strong signal mode? 8^)

If you can separate the transmit and receive sites and/or frequencies
so that full duplex is achieved, all sorts of
things are possible.


OY!

If your setup has adaptive features so that it evaluates
the path characteristics and adapts the modulation and
frequencies used to conditions, all sorts of things are
possible.


Doubly Oy!

Of course most of the above is simply not practical for
the average ham, and/or is incompatible with current US
regulations.


really? gee it falls into the same catagory as
when it was said that we
ham had been banished to "useless frequencies"
everything above 200M



Hams were never banished to everything above 200 meters.

What happened was that amateur stations were required to use
only wavelengths of 200 meters and below. But every station had
a specified wavelength. If a ham wanted to use, say, 159 meters,
s/he needed a station license that said "159 meters".

In 1912 there wasn't much known about how HF propagation actually
worked. The 'useless' idea came from extrapolation of what happened on
longer wavelengths. The ionosphere's role was not
even guessed at by "professionals in radio".


There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital
HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that
caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.

Radio is a fairly mature field, and digital is getting there.
Many
people have a pretty good idea what will likely work, based on education
and experience. And HF is an unruly beast, given to noisy and incredibly
variable conditions. We don't have to be rocket scientists to gain that
knowledge.

Just as an exercise, how much information can be carried by a 1.8 MHz
signal? How much error correction will be needed during the summer, and
how much during the winter? Why is there a difference? Why would a
wireless digital transmission system use UHF and above for data
transmission?



All very good questions!

when was that Jim


A long, long time ago. When almost nothing was known about propagation.


Jim might note that they do some bandwidth tricks in similar manner
as he proposed per our conversation in here earlier. Not exact, but
along the same lines
Hopefully we will see an article from those who know the right way
to HF digital soon. 8^)


I don't have my CQ handy, but it took them a fair amount of time
(measured in minutes IIRC, to transmit some heavily compressed (beyond
maximum jpeg compression), and therefore really poor quality (by almost
everyones standard) pictures.

Didn't I make a challenge with some of the HF high-speed digital
believers in here to do a sked? I think the "answer" was that I was
going to steal the technology.



You can't steal vaporware.


Not that that is likely, but how about say some of the
believers among
themselves, do a proof of performance of the technology?

Or is this just one of those Wondertenna type ideas that crop
up from
time to time, only to be found lacking when introduced
into the real world?


Heck, Mike, you want *practical* stuff?


You betchya!

- Mike KB3EIA -

robert casey August 8th 05 03:55 AM

John Smith wrote:

Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...


How else am I gonna get my "Worked All Hams" award, then?

:-)

John Smith August 8th 05 04:04 AM

Robert:

HUH? attempting-to-keep-a-straight-face

John

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 02:55:23 +0000, robert casey wrote:

John Smith wrote:

Dave:

A useful figure here would be the percentage of hams who contest... Dee
seems to think all 600,000 (and yes, I don't think that figure is even
close to correct) do...


How else am I gonna get my "Worked All Hams" award, then?

:-)



Dave Heil August 8th 05 04:13 AM

an_old_friend wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:

an old friend wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:


Mike Coslo wrote:


Dave Heil wrote:


There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.



agreed there are reasons of course as there were then

but it is folks like you with "it can not be Done.. therefore it should
not be disused etc. that insure it can't be done


So, according to your view, it is quite possible that you *could* pass a
morse test.

Dave K8MN

an_old_friend August 8th 05 04:25 AM


Dave Heil wrote:
an_old_friend wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote:

an old friend wrote:

Dave Heil wrote:


Mike Coslo wrote:


Dave Heil wrote:


There are some pretty darn good reasons why high-speed digital HF won't
work well. And they aren't related to early "knowledge" that caused hams
to be relegated to those higher frequencies at the time.



agreed there are reasons of course as there were then

but it is folks like you with "it can not be Done.. therefore it should
not be disused etc. that insure it can't be done


So, according to your view, it is quite possible that you *could* pass a
morse test.


Of course I could If write enough stuff in response to enough tests I
am certain I could indeed pass, assuming of course I live that long

OTOH I more likely to get a kind word from Stevie on my spelling or
even my honesty


Dave K8MN




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