gemini://gemini.sh0.xyz/log/2023-03-12_re_ham_radio_silent_key

As a moderately new ham, got my ticket back in 2011, I have had the same thoughts wholesomedonut has. Such a wonderful hobby that is filled with aging hobbyists and dying knowledge. Discussions online from younger generations tend to drift off into annoyance with topics being had on the radio and older operators getting annoyed that computers are getting in the way with the bands being filled with the sound of modems rather than voice and Morse Code (CW). There is a good YouTube community of operators trying to revive the hobby, though revive may be the wrong word as numbers of new licensees has increased over the past few decades. While they all have been talking about why they get annoyed with others in the hobby, I have been thinking for quite some time why the hobby itself may not last.

I had the benefit of growing up in that sweet spot of the 80's and 90's when computers became a thing. I started out with a Tandy 1000 at home and some old monochrome screen's black box at my grandfather's business. 5 1/4 inch floppy disks and tape drives, an acoustic coupler modem where I dialed into a BBS using a rotary phone. Long distance bills because the BBS was two towns over. The first applications I used were things people in our BBS were writing and sharing. It was a time of makers.

Then once I got to Middle School I started taking programming classes. The internet became more than gopher and IRC. By the time I graduated in 2001 the internet we have today was starting to take shape and the old culture became less and less common. Obviously most of you are reading this on Gemini so it's not as if the true maker community is gone. But how many of you are reading this from your iPhone or Android device? DIY has become commercialized and shows up in very specific places.

A few months ago I was playing Fallout 4 on my Xbox. I always found the theme of Fallout fun, the whole 50's era nostalgia thing. While I didn't grow up then I often understood the appeal for that time period, technologically speaking. Everything tech back then was both cutting edge and DIY. TV sets would break down and a physical person would come over to your house, open it up and replace resistors, capacitors and tubes that burned out. If you had enough knowledge, the manual and some time you could not only fix a TV but build one yourself. That was the Amateur Radio community. You could buy a kit or build a radio from scratch. You knew your radio inside and out. That was part of the hobby. If something broke you fixed it. There was no shipping it back to the manufacturer, no tossing it in the trash because it was easier and faster to just order a new one. You debugged the issue, bought new parts and fixed it.

Part of that mentality still exists today by way of the examination process. To get past the first level in the US (Technician) you have to have a good understand of basic radio theory. Maybe not everyone could draw up a Colpitts Oscillator but its not as if you can just buy yourself a higher license level. In the past they had CW or Morse Code speed requirements but as numbers declined that requirement was dropped. Sadly, for that same reason there is no drive to make the technical aspect more important to get more privileges.

Ever so often you'll find a Ars Technica article about how "if you're a Maker, try out Ham Radio!" I'm torn on the idea because I don't see today's Makers as having the same breadth of knowledge as in the past. Buying Lego Mindstorms and Raspberry Pis and snapping things together is great for getting people into tech and hopefully driving them towards jobs. But I just don't get the same feeling as I do when I talk to other Hams who have a real background in electronics and radio. When I was going to university for my Computer Engineering degree (half EE and half CS) things were still very math and science oriented. I learned everything from how to design a micro controller to how antennas and radio propagation works. Physics and chemistry classes and nearly an entire degree worth of math. I've been able to work in areas outside my degree doing technical writing and design for other engineering disciplines because of this background.

In the past few years when I'd visit my alma mater I noticed that they have started to move in the direction of creating more task fit engineers. So many programs being dropped as to make way for more and more mobile app developers. At least the EE department still has a lot of the same subjects but the overall idea of technology seems to be shifting. A grad school course I helped develop was dropped because no one wants to learn how to create operating systems and hardware. No one seems to want to learn the deep dark secretes of technology. Not when making all the cool flashy stuff do cool flashy things.

I've joked with other older engineers that at some point we will end up with complex systems that everyone knows how to use but no one knows how to fix, let alone how to recreate. With the swift move for things like digital radios and computer to computer communications the hobby of amateur radio is continuing to grow. The companies that make radios and all the other parts we need are still doing well. Kits and home brew radios are not completely gone but its far more rare to work a station with something they built completely by hand. For as much as I love the old school version of the hobby I've fallen victim to these issues too. In the last 6 months I've spent more time on Digital Voice modes through a raspberry pi hot spot connected to the internet than I have tapped out Morse Code into a radio running off a 9 volt battery. I've made more contacts on HF using my laptop than I have physically talking. My plan this year is to get my CW speed up to 20 words a minute. I want to be able to use the small home brew radio I built as an actual radio rather than just something I look at while I use my store bought hand held to talk over the internet.

The hobby of amateur radio is fun and by no means do you need to be an old school maker with a soldering iron. If you're reading this and find the idea fun, go and get your license. More people in the hobby will not hurt it one bit. The more the merrier. There are so many aspects outside of building radios that I'm sure you can find something enjoyable.

Re: Ham Radio, Silent Key Archive

Back in my day

Amateur Radio's Hay Day

Will today's Makers find the hobby?

What happens next?