Rediscover the magic of radio by becoming an amateur radio operator. There
are so many marvelous things to do these days. Check out www.arrl.org

I have listened to ham radio and did not hear any magic only boring
conversations.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California



I think ham radio operators are good folks, and they can be
lifesavers in emergency situations - willing to stay at the mike for 24
hours straight if need be.

But aside from that - I have to agree. Most of them are bores. 45
minutes on changing a tire on one's car is a typical ham conversation.
Better than Sominex.

Tony

Let's not forget the ever-popular (and very boring) conversations about health
problems and doctor visits I often hear on the local 2 meter repeaters as well
as the HF bands. With some hams, it seems like ailments are just about all
they can talk about. These conversations are part of the reason why ham radio
still has a reputation as a hobby that's associated with boring old men. Yes,
I realize there are a lot of interesting modes out there on the bands (PSK31,
SSTV, packet, etc.), but what's most people's first experience with amateur
radio? In many instances, it's listening to hams on 2 meters or HF drone on
endlessly about their health problems.

CB isn't much better. In fact, many truckers don't even turn on their CB's any
more unless they are at a truck stop, preferring to listen to XM Radio instead.
Where I live, channel 19 is dead most of the time, even on the weekends. The
few miscreants still on CB locally just seem to want to harass the truck
drivers, or key their mikes over and over to hear their roger beeps on a
talkback radio. That having been said, you still can't beat CB radio for
traffic information on the interstates, especially if you are miles away from
the big cities where all the dorks with the "big radios" take out their
frustrations on anyone who will argue with them.

73,
David

and limiting useage of
some of the channels, were eliminated with time,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow That brought back memories!! Let me see if I remember....

Channels 1-8 Units of the same license only (callsign...unit 1 2,
etc)

Channels 9-13 & 23 Units of different licenses only

Channels 14-22 Units of the same callsign only

9-13 and 23 were called the "legal" channels in this area. They were
colored green on my Courier 23 in 1967.

Mike

(remove PLANET and insert EARTH for proper e-mail address!

That's not entirely accurate, nor even true. 11 meters is still alive an
kicking: even a brief encounter with it will show this. Granted, the manners
have taken a left and it is a real circus, especially in close proximity to
truck stops. But where you get this bull**** about 2 meters being occupied
with all these drivers is lost on me.

Being one of these drivers myself, I can tell you that there is little to no
action on 2 meter simplex and most drivers that are Hams are to be found on
20 meters. What keeps CB alive is the vast amount of hardware available for
the band, the ease of acquiring and using it, and the practicality of
seeking traffic information on this band for the above mentioned reasons.

I've been a driver for several years and during that time, if I were to
derive a percentage from what I've seen about the number of truck driving
hams I'd have to put the number in the single digits, on average.

Talking about "dumbing down" the amateur radio tests, I'm not sure how to
respond to that. They aren't like the old tests, to be sure, but they're not
exactly pedestrian either. It's not like making a book report.

Suffice to say that there is still a Morse code requirement. It is greatly
more difficult to learn CW at 5 wpm than at 20 wpm and perhaps that's a
major factor in keeping so many people from passing it. I don't like to talk
at less than 30 wpm and prefer about 35 wpm because it's like talking on the
phone then. Enough said.

Pray for a continued code requirement.