Larry You took the words right out of my mouth and many others who are ham
radio operators.People don't want to see changes,but it has to happen.
I for one don't like to pay hundreds of dollars to buy antennas that look
like crap on your house or property.Some monstrosities that look like ****
in plain english,that break or are blown down in some storms.Now you got to
kick out more money so you can talk to someone.I think antennas are over
priced for what they are.
Now talk about buying some radios.hundreds or thousands of dollars so you
can or maybe can talk to someone (or yell so they can hear you)just to outdo
the Jones.
Whit a half decent computer and sound card and mike,I can talk anywhere most
hams do and yet farther with no antenna farm ,amp, or radio if I want to.And
also consistantly on a daily basis.Computers are cheaper today than most
antennas.
I love ham radio also,My wife is a ham also.
Ecolink is here to stay.Try it,you may like it.
My two and a half cents worth.
"Larry" wrote in message
...
It's very interesting to see the emotion instead of solid logic. Ham radio
has several elements which draw people. One is the technical side of the
hobby and another is the talking side. Japan and their rice box radios has
brought to the surface the talking side. If you listen, you'll hear tons
of
QSO and people just talking their heads off. It really doesn't matter much
if it is on a rice box or on a computer for those people .. yet you hear
the
emotional responses about saving the bands etc .. YUK!

I live in a close neighborhood where 200 watts gets into telephones and
computer speakers and still some TV's and I gotta hang antennas everywhere
and make my house look like it's caught in a spider web. Now there BPL and
solar flare issues and the bands are terrible .. they suck. There's deed
restrictions, lawyers, PRB1, the ARRL the FCC. I can't talk 10 miles from
here on 75!

Then there Echolink. It won't do much for the technical side but unless
you
have used it a few times you couldn't possibly understand how nice it is
to
sit back, relax, and talk to your buddies without the jerks throwing
carriers and hog calls and pork butt songs, static crashes, dead bands,
contests, no antennas, no QRMers, no RFI ,, just hours of pleasant
chatting
with hams all over the world. I have met so many nice guys and had a lot
of
fun with the LINK and to those who want to fight it .. go ahead. When all
you can get from your radio is buzz pop click and your neighbor standing
on
your doorstep screaming for you to get off the radio .. feed your computer
sound card with a D104 and give Echolink a try.

I love ham radio but Echolink is a nice supplement.


"MD" wrote in message
.. .

"g3zhi" wrote in message
...
There are now over 132,000 callsigns registered in 139 different
countries.

There are daily additions, changes and deletions with over 1,000 new
calls
validated each week.

We might as well kiss our frequency allocations goodbye.
If we don't use them, were going to lose them.

Its Me Again ! wrote:

I for one don't like to pay hundreds of dollars to buy antennas that look
like crap on your house or property.Some monstrosities that look like ****
in plain english,that break or are blown down in some storms.Now you got to
kick out more money so you can talk to someone.I think antennas are over
priced for what they are.
Now talk about buying some radios.hundreds or thousands of dollars so you
can or maybe can talk to someone (or yell so they can hear you)just to outdo
the Jones.
Whit a half decent computer and sound card and mike,I can talk anywhere most
hams do and yet farther with no antenna farm ,amp, or radio if I want to.And
also consistantly on a daily basis.Computers are cheaper today than most
antennas.
I love ham radio also,My wife is a ham also.
Ecolink is here to stay.Try it,you may like it.



So if these are all legitimate concerns for you, why not just get a
cellphone and dial randomly from a phonebook or switch to chat rooms
exclusively? Why is it necessary for you to pretend that you are a ham
radio operator, when you are obviously not?

Mind you, I am not trying to reduce your enjoyment of this thingy that
you find adorable. I am simply arguing that it's not amateur radio
anymore than wacking off in front of Internet porn sites makes one a
great womanizer.

I "talk" to hams on various Usenet newsgroups, does that count as ham
radio as well?


73 .... WA7AA



--

Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly

"Zoran Brlecic" wrote in message
...
So if these are all legitimate concerns for you, why not just get a
cellphone and dial randomly from a phonebook or switch to chat rooms
exclusively? Why is it necessary for you to pretend that you are a ham
radio operator, when you are obviously not?

DITTO, DITTO, DITTO

73 de Paul

It has taken me quite a while to adjust to the new amateur radio paradigm.
It has not been easy, to say the least.

Today's HF bands sound like CB SSB of twenty five years ago. How do I know?
I was there. It was before I became a ham. I had lots of fun there too, but
the truckers finally drove me towards ham radio. That and the CB crowd, most
of them, did not like it if you spoke the least bit technically in those
days.

I operated Air Force RF communications systems in the sixties and got my FCC
GROL with radar endorsement before I was a ham, so I don't want to hear any
wisecracks about being a CBer at heart.

I operated a lot during the early to mid eighties. There were a lot more
people on the VHF/UHF bands in those days. I operated CW and AMTOR/RTTY on
the HF bands back then. Living in the center of town and not having room for
a real antenna kept me from using HF phone on the lower bands. Besides, from
what I could hear, there was no real reason for me to go down there, even
back then. I'm not into listening to drunks argue and people impersonating
various dog barks.

These days I still enjoy VHF/UHF more than HF, but the number of operators
seems to have diminished quite a bit. I am about to get back into HF
digital, but with all new modes to try. That should keep me busy for a
while.

I enjoy using computers with ham radio. Talking for hours on SSB is boring
to me. I'm not knocking it. I'm just not interested in operating phone on HF
that much. To each his own.

Even back in the seventies, there were a few hams telling other hams that
they were not real hams, for one idiotic reason or another. Nothing has
changed that way. You'll find obnoxious people where ever you go.

Ed Cregger



"Paul Vanasse" wrote in message
.. .

"Zoran Brlecic" wrote in message
...
So if these are all legitimate concerns for you, why not just get a
cellphone and dial randomly from a phonebook or switch to chat rooms
exclusively? Why is it necessary for you to pretend that you are a ham
radio operator, when you are obviously not?

DITTO, DITTO, DITTO

73 de Paul