Bob Dobbs wrote:
Steve wrote:
On Jun 15, 9:12 am, wrote:
dxAce wrote:

Just another no-coder. They might just as well give away the ticket nowadays
in a box of Cracker Jack.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

You represent everything bad about Amateur Radio. People like you scare
young people away from the hobby.

Of course, the flip side of this is figuring out just how watered down
and popularized we're willing to make the hobby in order to attract
"young people". In my opinion, if young people don't want to come to
the party, let them go elsewhere. I'll be too busy on the radio to
notice.

They're not 'watering' it down to attract young people
as much as any person with the resources to purchase
one of the multi-kilobuck HF rigs.
The big push to dumb down requirements like the slow code of the early 90s and
now no code at all is from equipment dealers like AES and HRO. Some day they'll
go for no skills requirements altogether and go after the CBer types.


So far I've bought a Ten-Tec and an Elecraft, both USA factory direct.
I use a sound card digital mode (bpsk31) that works pretty well with 30
Watts into an "imaginative" GAP vertical dipole. I use about a 30th of
a single SSB voice channel; and I sincerely apologize for helping to
ruin Ham Radio for you.

Bob Dobbs wrote:


You haven't 'ruined' anything for me.
I just wish the hobby had remained as such
and hadn't become such a cash cow for the equipment dealers.
It tends to cheapen the efforts someone puts into something
when it's later degraded for the sake of a sale.
IOW: If you can get a HAM ticket
without having to develop a skill set or knowledge base,
then having one isn't indicative of anything
and in turn that ticket is worthless.


You just miss Collins and Drake; I understand. Note, both companies
named after persons long deceased. At least they had the good sense not
to name Ten-Tec "Kahn".