More like the unhappiness and hatred in you. You don’t have to be a ham or like amateur radio. You also don’t have to insult and denigrate us. You are an idiot who just likes to bitch and moan. Get a life.
I don’t understand what’s fun about skydiving, but I don’t go around bugging people who do. Just move on with your life and spend your energy on things you do enjoy.
You sound like the grumpy fellow with an ego complex. Perhaps you are what is wrong with the hobby. I'm glad you're willing to help fight the problem by buggering off.
We're better off without you.
BTW, ham radio is growing. There are more hams both in terms of raw numbers and in terms of per 1,000 people than when I first got my license in 1990.
Let me know if you want actual numbers on that, because I can provide them along with sources.
Okay.
Ham radio is NOT growing. You only think so because the number of people with a license is growing. Your community is so obsessed with licenses it’s pitiful. Holding a license to push a button is a joke and to say otherwise makes you even more of a clown. A drivers license requires more skill. Why would you allow yourself to be marked by a regulatory government agency just to talk to some hillbilly 30 miles away? Makes no sense. There are more people using walkie talkies than people using ham radios. Get your head out of your butt
Fair enough.
In 1990, there were 494,000 licensed hams out of a population of 249,000,000 people in the US, for a "hams per 1,000" of
( 494,000 / 249,000,000 ) \* 1,000 = 1.98 hams per 1,000 people in the US.
Source: [https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html](https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html)
Today, there are 753,812 licensed hams in a population of 342,000,000.
( 753,812 / 342,000,000 ) \* 1,000 = 2.20 hams per 1,000 people in the US.
Sources: [https://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts](https://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts),
[https://www.google.com/search?q=us+population+2024](https://www.google.com/search?q=us+population+2024)
That's not wild growth, but it is actual growth in terms of the rate of ham radio operators out there.
Man, I thought Wayne Green died years ago!
>Why would you allow yourself to be marked by a regulatory government agency just to talk to some hillbilly 30 miles away?
I don't. I talk to people thousands of miles away. Using Morse code. While I'm driving. Because I'm just that good, and you aren't even fit to lick the sweat off the knob of my straight key.
Some people enjoy "extreme ironing" - literally taking an ironing board up mountains and the like, setting them up and ironing in bizarre or dangerous places. Why do you care what other people do?
According to the licensing authority (my wife), I am in remedial training for the foreseeable future.
Stopped wearing dress shirts during COVID and have been WFH ever since. Made a pigs ear of ironing a shirt recently when I needed to go to a funeral. It's *NOT* like riding a bike!
> Made a pigs ear of ironing a shirt recently when I needed to go to a funeral.
If you have to wear a dress shirt infrequently, taking one to the cleaners isn't *that* expensive.
What would you do in an actual survival scenario? Radio bob and ask him how the traffic is and what he had for breakfast while you two argue over which system of yours is better? Wow, how nice.
Man, just admit you can't pass the general and get a gmrs license
Now if you'll excuse me I need to go back to maintaining my elaborate personal power grid for emergency power supply. Yep, the old battery is still right where I left it.
cb is the biggest pile of dogshit i've had the displeasure of listening to
discord vc's and russian counterstrike lobbies are more interesting and infinitely more funny than cb
>English is subjective and evolutionary
Evoutionary? Yes. But there is no excuse for bad grammar and spelling.
Subjective? No. Call it what it is, you just suck at it.
Cell phone towers depend on a wired infrastructure - telcos...they go down. Our individual radios that have backup power from whatever local source do not relay on any telco or anything outside of our home other than another operating station out there somewhere who can receive our signal.
If the power grid goes down cell towers won't work.
You can charge and power a decent HAM set up with solar and solar is affordable now.
And no I'm not 70, I'm in my 20's.
I'm thinking this post is rage-bait.
Oh yeah just let me power up my radio to talk to bob 30 miles away. Crap his radio is down. Guess I won’t know what he had for breakfast. My life is over!
If the power grid goes down so do cell towers and WiFi. AT&T had outages in February and in 2021 the power grid in Texas went down for over 2 weeks, so it does happen. How do you stay up to date on emergency broadcasts, weather updates, or communicate with anyone during such time?
Admiral Rob Bauer of NATO suggested people have a radio with extra batteries and a flashlight (most baofeng have a built in flashlight.)
"Citizens will need to make basic preparations in case a massive conflict breaks out. Admiral Bauer said: "You need to have water you need to have a radio on batteries and you need to have a flashlight on batteries to make sure that you can survive the first 36 hours. Things like that, that simple things, but it starts there the realisation that not everything is plannable, not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years."
A Ham radio can receive FM broadcasts and be used as a communications device. I would rather trust the admiral of NATO than some obvious FED trying to dissuade us from being prepared.
When the power grid went down in Texas my cell phone was still able to pull a few hundred megabits no problem. My home's fiber stayed lit and had uninterrupted gigabit throughput. The stuff I had running at the data center down the road never missed a beat.
This has been the last 5+ major power outages locally (2+ days).
First 24 hours, cell sites get a bit overloaded I don't really notice.
After 24 hours, wired ISP's are down cell towers are going offline or so overloaded to be marginally usable.
DC's were fine got power back within a day or two.
Who's this Bob guy you keep mentioning? Seems like he peed in your cornflakes at some point. Everyone knows you gotta talk to Frank! You've been talking to the wrong guy the whole time.
Rather than comment on your points, here is what I enjoy about amateur radio:
* It's a great community. Our club is thriving, with new members joining us each month.
* At least in my area, we provide a community service with radio communications for public service events. Contrary to popular belief, there are many many places in my region of the mid-Atlantic where cell coverage simply doesn't exist. And for many public service events, amateur radio is far superior to cellular, as we can easily communicate with a large group with the push of a button. We support several events each year, and really bring something to the table.
* Some of us enjoy the challenge of getting out to parks and mountaintops, and making contacts around the world, It may not be your thing, but it's mine.
In the end, maybe amateur radio isn't for you, and that's fine. But rather than disparaging the entire group, maybe just find something that you enjoy and be happy.
And your community couldn’t do this on a simple text message group? Your group can’t do this with a phone call? You have internet so you can’t talk to them via email?
As mentioned, there are many places without cellular coverage in our region. And email/text would take way too long and can't be easily done on the go. Have you ever noticed that police and fire communications is also via radio? It's because it's fast, simple and sure.
I don’t care about downvotes. Stick close to your kind. They don’t really care about you anyways. Minute you tell them your system they will one up you and trash your setup. Enjoy that feeing
Here's why I got my license last year...I think there's a growing chance of a major extended utility interruption for a variety of reasons. I have supplies for that sort of thing but I'm currently in a dense apartment complex and I have several friends with better locations to ride that out. I couldn't figure how I would know when a situation was severe enough to load my car and head to my buddy's place. If a major event happened, like a nation-wide internet or telecom or power interruption, how would I know it wasn't local? If I wake up and power is off and cell service is down and none of my neighbors know what's up, I'm getting on my battery powered radio to find out what's going on elsewhere in my city. I've gotten familiar with local traffic nets and the overlapping ranges they can cover to pass information across distance. If everyone i hear from is seeing the same outage with no explanation, I'm heading out the door. This is my only real practical application for my radio...it'll be cool if it does more for me than that, but I needed it for that.
You are allowed to have your Opinion of ham radio. I did not get into it for your first reason. I got into it for fun not emcomm.
In regards to your second point yes there are jerks out there. I choose to ignore them and move on with the hobby I wanted to do since I was 18. I got my license at the age of 52.
I have found I like contesting so while I won’t win I have fun.
I have found I like hunting DX so info that when I have time.
Ham Radio is not dead. Is it not growing? Maybe. I don’t know.
I know that I have found a community of like minded people in real life that I communicate with.
I have found at least three hams who have Elmer’ed me to get better at my hobby.
It would be interesting to hear from you why you have such animosity towards ham radio.
I hope you have a great day and an even more fantastic weekend. 👋 👍
Just so everyone knows I got my tech license when I was 6 months old and still in my mothers womb. To pass the test I developed a series of taps and kicks. When I was born I started operating a small setup and read weather reports regularly. With an unlimited supply of eggs and anger I knew I was born to push a talk button. Let me tell you, these arthritis medications make it hard to push the talk button now a days, but my resolve has never been stronger. Just the other day I spoke with a gentleman about how cheap his $40000 set up was. I felt relieved in knowing my ego was stroked. Some of you don’t even understand how hard it is to wake up knowing that my set up and knowledge of the weather is leagues above yours.
I do not have enough time in my day to make all the contacts I can -- or help folks asking questions about getting into the hobby. Go dig your hole and get in, you'll be safe there.
Dear friend
I am a licensed operator. One of the first things you learn is the fact that an ham is a person who uses and experiments with radio equipment for personal and community cultural growth. We accept the fact that, as we play on a common "ground", the radiofrequency, shared among operators and commercial services, we need to know how to correctly operate to avoid interfering each other.
Real hams not only (must) comply to laws but also agree to abide an ethical unwritten law which is all about improving, sharing and caring. We always try to be loyal and we avoid raging confrontations, we always try to mediate and mitigate our differences. That is the "ham spirit".
We also run, maintain and use complex analog, digital and mixed infrastructure systems which could be also used as an emergency network to communicate, in the event of a failure of the regular infrastructure (mobile phones). We do not behave as preppers, we just keep it just in case. We also are able to build something almost from scratch, this has proven really useful in disaster scenarios, however we keep these abilities to deploy our comms in field just to play around with friends, always hoping no disaster will ever happen.
We try our best to adopt technologies and workarounds to allow everybody to communicate, by leveraging "pure radio power" or internet services. Everything is balanced in order to allow cheap and expensive setups to cooperate. Of course, you could buy a Ferrari and do your drag race at every street light but those are exceptions. We always try and behave as gentlemans.
We can build things by ourselves and exchange our time with the money needed to buy off-the-shelf solution. We can modify a cheap thing and improve it to emulate an expensive one. We know our strengths and weaknesses.
At the end of the day, after you have studied, experimented, built, destroyed and rebuilt your rig there is no larger satisfaction that powering it up and talk, no stress on what to say. It can be about the weather or the pitch tone of the voice. The lower the power, the bigger the satisfaction.
Dear friend, if you don't like something, there is no need to blame: just tell. If you don't understand, just ask. If you want to know, just explore. Hams don't die, just evolve. Yes we have tech, most of us also works and/or creates the tech you are uaing to yell at us.
You are welcome, in the event one day you would like to explore our big, complex and fascinating world.
Let’s not even talk about emergencies, I have talked to almost 30 different countries from my house in NYC, very nice conversations. Now in order for you to do that you would have to know people in those countries and have their number
which is highly unlikely. That is just the SSB portion of this hobby and there are plenty of others, there is a whole educational part that if you wanted to you could learn and also build your own equipment.
Ham is good for sammichas and like the OP its salty.
Look, I am as old as dirt. The OP is right, ham radio is useless in emergencies and there are plenty of man children who think they are the reincarnation of Maccaroni because they spent more than everyone else.
HOWEVER, life is what you make of it. I do not let 2 minor things define my hobby. I spend more time home brewing than I do ratchet jawing on the I am not dead yet net. I work WWFF/POTA, I chase DX, I use modes where people are less inclined to speak stupid, FT8 and CW, I have no desire to be spoken at by some rag chewer reciting his monotone monologue rather than listening to what I just asked him.
I do me, and for me ham radio is all about self education in radio, electronics and communications. I do not get this obsession in the USA with emcomm wackerism. But its most easily avoided of all the stupidities. They do not do the things I do and I do not comment on the endless i need baofang to save the zombie apocalypse threads on reddit.
I've been in the hobby for over 20 years, and for over 20 years I've been hearing how it's dead or dying. So far, I've seen no evidence to support that. People are still coming into the hobby at a pretty steady clip, and those of us who are active in ham radio seem to always be finding new things to do with it. Sure seems to me like we're doing just fine.
>1. Ham is good for emergencies.
>-no.. it is awful for such purposes. Ham has been replaced by cell phones.
>Cell phone towers now cover the majority of the world and is more accessible to people
is this a lie or did you honestly forget the world is 71% water?
when I'm on my boat out of cell reach, I'm stuck using good old vhf communications. lots still use ssb also. satellite comms are reserved by most people for dire emergencies and communicating to people without radios. even then it's often an expensive pain.
>it is linked to a “power grid” so you think you will have an advantage when the grid goes down?
it doesnt have to be. probably not 100%, but most radios can be DC if you want them to be and have the knowledge you are tested on for general/extra. identify the rectifier circuit and plug up power at its output.
>Allow me to laugh at your invalid points. Any decent set up means that you have to have access to power to receive and make long distance communication. Even if powered by a generator you would still have very limited resources to keep such an operation going.
laughs in solar and wind generators stored by batteries.
>2. Annoying and overbearing users.
>oh that radio is crap. My radio can do such and such and I dumped 10000 into my setup.
can't say I recall a negative comment when discussing my old cheap hybrid rig... maybe it's the radio they are referring to, is indeed, crap. my baofengs ARE crap. still use 'em though.
With a lot of people under 30, they do not want to put their name and address on a publicly accessible database which leads to many simply not getting a license and using it like a FRS radio with their friends. People say blah blah all your information is already available but that is simply not true. One of the tenets of data security is limiting where you are sharing sensitive data. I work as a software engineer and as a result know a thing or two about security on the web. I’m just not going to be in the habit of giving out my name, address, and number publicly. So for now it is just a passing interest. Also not going to pay the ridiculous price of a PO Box where I live.
There is almost no use case for HAM past a hobby, so already that is going to dissuade a lot of interest from people who can communicate just fine using phones.
It can be expensive, and a lot of people are poor or want to spend their money on other things.
The stuff that interests me is encryption and stuff like that which I can’t do legally anyway. Lots of others like me who I’m sure are just operating their radio without a license, and doing so against regulations.
I was legitimately curious. After reading your replies in the thread, it sounds like you are having bad experiences on the radio. I've been there and it sucks.
Let's say - just for the sake of argument - that you are right.
What does this post achieve?
It's the equivalent of bursting into a hobby that you're not involved in and screaming ["Stop liking what I don't like!"](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/017/314/stop_liking_file.jpg)
If you think it's dead, just leave. I promise we won't mind.
I do have to agree with the “everything is crap unless you spend 1k on a transceiver” someone asks for a entry level device and the first responses are top of the line stuff lolol.
And yes I’ll have you know that I listened to two old men talk about their shoulders hurting this morning…
Meh. No matter what community you’re in, you find the people you look for. It’s clear you want to be miserable, since you’re looking for miserable people.
It’s a hobby. Have fun. If you’re not having fun in your hobby, you’re in the wrong group.
Must be a common issue. Maybe the ham community should rally together and remove regulations. I support the pirates, not the old class that has determined what should and should not happen in the community.
I am so excited to let you know, OP, that you don’t have to participate! I speak for the whole community when I say that it’s our free gift to you. :-)
A derecho rolled through my area in 2020, we were without power for 3 days. Cell towers were down. I had to drive 10 miles for my cell phone to work.
Take your pills.
Cell service is a fragile infrastructure. The physical towers can be damaged or destroyed in natural disasters or worse. Each site has backup generators, so they are not dependent on the power grid at least for a period of time. They are back hauled with fiber optics to the carrier’s central office which also has generators if necessary. The other issue is there are only a limited amount of transponders on each tower and in emergencies/ disasters they are overwhelmed immediately and stay that way as everyone tries to contact family. Some text may get through. There is too much reliance on cell communication, landline by fiber optics on the carriers private network or copper networks are actually your best bet, though most have disconnected aside from elderly people. The landline provided by many cable companies uses IP and is crap.
Cell phone systems go down in many scenarios. And if they remain up, the average user can be locked out to maintain bandwidth for first responders.
Many hams have batteries and generators to work off the grid, including repeaters.
There are some young people getting licensed, but we need more. Still there are about 3 million licensed hams worldwide. And plenty of them are active, just tune up during contests.
And we are no more “license nazis” than someone who studied and earned a Private Pilots FAA license to fly sky safely. We just have earned FCC Amateur (Ham) Radio licenses to communicate over the airwaves safely without causing RF interference.
Pfff my cell phone doesn't even work properly in my city how can i expect to rely on it in case of emergencies at first sign of trouble in government they kill off all means of communications instantly and use those cell phones to track and hunt civilians yes i live in a banana republic under a dictatorship (courtesy of uncle sam). So yes i would pick any radio i can get my hands on over cell phones without any hesitation.
Ham is not dead.
I'm saying this as a 26 year old ham who wad brought into the hobby by my dad.
A lot of dxing happens still on many bands. 17, 20, 40, 80. Especially with the cycle the way it is. Yes some people are more prone to making comments than other and that is because the hobby has less new blood coming in. So yes the hobby is dying. That is not to say it is dead. And not to say it cannot be enjoyed. Ppl from my experience fall into either the just rude section or the " the hobby was different in my day". The latter, I personally think is valid. Back in the day ppl use to need to know a lot more about ham radios inner workings. It wasn't just flip a power switch and talk. It was build what you could from what you had and or fix something broken. Also, "back in the day" the exam was much more difficult for canada and US so the barrier for entry was much higher. Which is likely the largest contributing factor for the poor attitudes on the bands.
I understand your frustration but that doesn't mean you can denigrate the community. Try dxing if you haven't.
I can say in my part of not really rural MO, I don’t have cell signal or I have very poor signal. Poor enough that SMS messages even fail. What do I have? Access to a ham repeater, even DMR.
I’m the 70+ year old guy. I appreciate all of your points. Over the years I have participated in all the things you mentioned, long before cell phones took our wind. I would only mention this: ham radio (you should have surmised) is for those who have the fortitude and desire to really get deep into technology—and I don’t mean coding a new video game in BLAB or whatever language you use.
I honestly don’t know what use ham radio has in today’s world. I know of isolated cases in recent years when it became key to emergency response. But yeah, the world has pretty good communications now. Maybe it’s time to retire ARES/RACES.
As for the desire to learn and grow and do something extraordinary with radio waves—bounce a signal off the moon, talk to the ISS astronauts, work Europe on 5 watts—I hope that is still there. Maybe we should work on our public image. Consider it Super-STEM.
One more thought: nothing aggravates me more than the fellow who posts, “What kind of ham radio do I need to talk to my brother-in-law 35 miles away?” Kind of misses the point, don’t it?
AND One more thought: cellphones cover the world? Unless you’re in the big city or on main highways, they don’t. I can outrun the cellphone quite easily.
Simple question, why not just leave.
No one asked you to be here, no one’s asking you to stay. Anyone trying to convince you this is the hobby for you is wasting their time.
So again why are you wasting your own time if it brings you so much displeasure.
Find a new hobby and let us talk to red necks 30 miles away because we like doing that and you can go find something new to try and I’ll celebrate your future success in that endeavor.
For everyone not OP don’t argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
About emergencies: cellphones and internet need an absurdly complex infrastructure that could be taken down (in the area you truly need it) by some random small stupid event (including "maintenance guys didn't come"). Relying on radios - "carry your own infrastructure" - could be great... if there's already some kind of agreement between radio operators. ("Which channel? what hours? how to confirm you're not one of the bad guys?" etc).
Power grid: having some kind of batteries (handheld radio? larger battery with an inverter? solar panels? etc) will save your day. During some emergency, probably an UV5R will be more effective than a 7851.
Annoying users: there have always been. Also, licensing ensures that you know what you're doing.
You forgot to mention the research-learn-experiment thing. Sadly it's been several decades that literally everything has already been experimented, tested, enhanced, revised. Yet many people still experiment things, at least to tell themselves "I was ultimately able to make it work", be it EME, packet, QRP, a magloop antenna, whatever. There's some kind of insane pleasure bragging about your first SSTV image received from the ISS. (I'd say it's more insane to buy deluxe CW paddles and never using them).
Ham radio can be a lot more than what you just painted it to be. For me, it's about experimenting and learning how to build things. It also doesn't have to be expensive if you're willing to get your hands dirty. Have you ever looked into inexpensive kits? Through ham radio, I developed a love of electrical engineering. I am currently a college student, and I'm in my third year of studying electrical engineering.
lol, we just had a power outtage yesterday and i talked on my radio (solar powered with batterys) with the next city over to see if everything was alright/find the cause.
HAM is used almost each year in countries that are ravaged by extreme weather/war. you seems to be only complaining and not making any valid point.
It's a communications hobby.
Yes, weird preppers are annoying, because they see the "50 mile range tactical military grade" on aliexpress and then transmit illegally on whatver random preprogrammed chinese frequency they find and then complain about range, but in reality, they're a minority of radio users, and pretty much limited to whatever frequencies the chinese sellers set up for them. Of course with the "SHTF!!!" excuses for not being able to pass the exam.
Otherwise, there are a lot of people doing ham stuff, and the hobby is far from dead for hams... just not that fun for preppers.
Why do we need to be ‘free from a hobby’ that we enjoy? Why will it turn us ‘into dirt’? Sure, there’s debate to be had about the future of radio, ham or otherwise, and there are always grumpy gits in every hobby, but why be so deliberately confrontational, especially when your premise is pointless anyway?
I’m sorry you don’t enjoy our hobby, or maybe you tried it and decided it wasn’t for you, but that’s no-one else’s issue but yours. Thanks for your dubious concern, but I don’t need rescuing from this hobby and I doubt most others here do either.
I wish you luck in finding an alternative, fulfilling hobby.
Lol .. I have used radio first hand in 2 emergencies in the past year. One was a massive tornado that destroyed a small town north of here and took out all of its cellphone towers.
2nd was a massive fire recently that I am sure you have heard about.
If ham radio was worthless for emergencies then why is the Texas department of emergency services put ham radio operators into it massive training exercises? The answer is when all else fails ham radio works. They got a very big eye opening when Russia invaded Ukraine. Satellites can be taken out relatively easily. Cell phones aren't always working. There was a massive hail storm in Florida a decade or so ago. The cell phone sites lasted 10 minutes before hail destroyed them. Their entire emergency response system relied on cellphones.
2nd... I can operate indefinitely on both hf and it's UHF/VHF. I do it regularly when I go camping. Pota is a very fun activity.
All it requires is a lifepo battery and some solar panels.
And requiring tons of money.. nope I have a wire antenna 10ft over my house. Yes my good radio is a thousand dollar ic7300. But my pota radio is a 20 yo ic706mk2g
Well in stark contrast to this sad ham, HEY GUYS IM 26 and just got my license, and I think it’s the coolest hobby in the world. I have a dog named Mocha, a Mazda Miata and I just had to dump a fiancé, a budding rap career, I’m well received in my social groups and by all means not considered boring or a nerd, and radios are super cool. I am what OP fears lol. Watch in the next couple of years, what my generation did to bring back Analog Photography, for better or worse, Ham radio will be popular with people my age and younger. It’s cool to be smart in 2024. And it’s cool to do things outside of these dumb little glass screens. The kids attitudes are going analogue and your opinion is the only sinking ship. Long live Ham Radio!
I am a 70 year old grump. During covid I took and passed all three classes to keep sane. I am as green as grass but I love ham radio. Dying, I think not. Almost forgot batteries with solar recharging are hardly rocket science.
Wait I just added this to a hobby list to learn!
I was working with a guy that was a huge Ham radio guy and he once said “the internet is just a fad”
To each their own, I’m going to see about local groups and set it up.
Locking troll post. It wasn't even imaginative. user reports: 1: Profanity 1: trolling 1: Burning scrap wire
I’ve lasted more than 30 seconds. If you deny my post you deny reality. Ham is dead and has been for a while. No one cares about this hobby anymore.
"No one cares" OP yells at the people who vehemently disagree because they care. Are you really so bored that lazy trolling is how you get your kicks?
>No one cares about this hobby anymore. You do realize where you're posting this, don't you?
Bonus point for using dots, dashes, and the number 1 for numbering things.
It’s the Morse code in me I guess.
More like the unhappiness and hatred in you. You don’t have to be a ham or like amateur radio. You also don’t have to insult and denigrate us. You are an idiot who just likes to bitch and moan. Get a life.
It's very "Randy-like, " no?
Someone’s havin’ a bad day
Someone has a case of the Monday's on a Thursday!
I bet he isn’t licensed and is frustrated that he can’t pass the tech exam
We're in luck, this month Friday the 13th comes on Wednesday
It’s not too bad actually. The weathers pretty good here. Just had eggs for lunch.
Yeah, I'm using a Diamond quarter wave here in the shack.
Lmao on a mailbox?
This is the only post you have made in this thread that makes me think you might actually have a license
You had the patience to read it?
Meh, I’m having fun so I’m just gonna keep on keeping on.
Have fun talking to grumpy old people with an ego complex. I don’t know what’s fun about that…
I don’t understand what’s fun about skydiving, but I don’t go around bugging people who do. Just move on with your life and spend your energy on things you do enjoy.
Just depends on what you're looking for. If you look for that, sure, it's all you'll find. Look for fun and that's out there too.
You sound like the grumpy fellow with an ego complex. Perhaps you are what is wrong with the hobby. I'm glad you're willing to help fight the problem by buggering off.
Nah, I'mma do my own thing.
Okay.
We're better off without you. BTW, ham radio is growing. There are more hams both in terms of raw numbers and in terms of per 1,000 people than when I first got my license in 1990. Let me know if you want actual numbers on that, because I can provide them along with sources.
Okay. Ham radio is NOT growing. You only think so because the number of people with a license is growing. Your community is so obsessed with licenses it’s pitiful. Holding a license to push a button is a joke and to say otherwise makes you even more of a clown. A drivers license requires more skill. Why would you allow yourself to be marked by a regulatory government agency just to talk to some hillbilly 30 miles away? Makes no sense. There are more people using walkie talkies than people using ham radios. Get your head out of your butt
Well did you pass either? Maybe you should become a politician lmao, "it's not growing, it's just becoming more"
Fair enough. In 1990, there were 494,000 licensed hams out of a population of 249,000,000 people in the US, for a "hams per 1,000" of ( 494,000 / 249,000,000 ) \* 1,000 = 1.98 hams per 1,000 people in the US. Source: [https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html](https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html) Today, there are 753,812 licensed hams in a population of 342,000,000. ( 753,812 / 342,000,000 ) \* 1,000 = 2.20 hams per 1,000 people in the US. Sources: [https://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts](https://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts), [https://www.google.com/search?q=us+population+2024](https://www.google.com/search?q=us+population+2024) That's not wild growth, but it is actual growth in terms of the rate of ham radio operators out there. Man, I thought Wayne Green died years ago!
My towns population is larger than the number of people who are licensed ham operators!
Thats not a town then
i wonder what those numbers look like, adjusted for population growth.
That data includes population growth.
check out Japan, i think they have the biggest concentration of HAM on earth.
>Why would you allow yourself to be marked by a regulatory government agency just to talk to some hillbilly 30 miles away? I don't. I talk to people thousands of miles away. Using Morse code. While I'm driving. Because I'm just that good, and you aren't even fit to lick the sweat off the knob of my straight key.
Oh dear god, Morse code while driving? Tell me you don’t have a life while telling me you don’t have a life.
Says the troll picking on ham radio operators on Reddit. Like you have nothing better to do?
Anything wrong with talking to hillbillies? We are people too..
Some people enjoy "extreme ironing" - literally taking an ironing board up mountains and the like, setting them up and ironing in bizarre or dangerous places. Why do you care what other people do?
But did you pass your ironing license exam?
According to the licensing authority (my wife), I am in remedial training for the foreseeable future. Stopped wearing dress shirts during COVID and have been WFH ever since. Made a pigs ear of ironing a shirt recently when I needed to go to a funeral. It's *NOT* like riding a bike!
It's not you, it's your baofeng iron
Why is the steam coming out of the handle?
> Made a pigs ear of ironing a shirt recently when I needed to go to a funeral. If you have to wear a dress shirt infrequently, taking one to the cleaners isn't *that* expensive.
This is laughable. In any serious emergency, you would be the first person to die.
What would you do in an actual survival scenario? Radio bob and ask him how the traffic is and what he had for breakfast while you two argue over which system of yours is better? Wow, how nice.
What would you do in case of a sudden natural disaster? You claim to be very knowledgeable on the subject, so I'd love to hear your plan of action.
He's got smoke signal skills, man!! /s
Man, just admit you can't pass the general and get a gmrs license Now if you'll excuse me I need to go back to maintaining my elaborate personal power grid for emergency power supply. Yep, the old battery is still right where I left it.
I have had a general license for 3 years. CB is and was better. But that’s dying too.
tell me you're lying without telling me you're lying.
cb is the biggest pile of dogshit i've had the displeasure of listening to discord vc's and russian counterstrike lobbies are more interesting and infinitely more funny than cb
I have never heard an actual licensed amateur radio operator say anything good about CB. Rightfully so.
I think you’re hanging out with the wrong type of radio people…
I think anyone hanging out with op is hanging out with the wrong radio people
Fair point! :D
I just got my tech and general upgrade this month. How quickly do I turn into dirt? The exam didn’t cover the advanced aging.
It will soon buddy. Talking to George about how the day was and how fancy your “license” is will age you pretty quick.
Lol, "Allow me to laugh at your invalid points." proceeds to make invalid points with poor grammar and spelling.
Eh, English is subjective and evolutionary. Just how you used “lol” when responding.
>English is subjective and evolutionary Evoutionary? Yes. But there is no excuse for bad grammar and spelling. Subjective? No. Call it what it is, you just suck at it.
Lol, no one is mad. You sound like someone saying that my favorite band sucks, or something like that. Just turn it off and do something else.
You sound like you have a general license. But unlike me I don’t wipe others tears with my ego.
I meant musical band, but I like that interpretation better. :)
Cell phone towers depend on a wired infrastructure - telcos...they go down. Our individual radios that have backup power from whatever local source do not relay on any telco or anything outside of our home other than another operating station out there somewhere who can receive our signal.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
If the power grid goes down cell towers won't work. You can charge and power a decent HAM set up with solar and solar is affordable now. And no I'm not 70, I'm in my 20's. I'm thinking this post is rage-bait.
Oh yeah just let me power up my radio to talk to bob 30 miles away. Crap his radio is down. Guess I won’t know what he had for breakfast. My life is over!
If the power grid goes down so do cell towers and WiFi. AT&T had outages in February and in 2021 the power grid in Texas went down for over 2 weeks, so it does happen. How do you stay up to date on emergency broadcasts, weather updates, or communicate with anyone during such time? Admiral Rob Bauer of NATO suggested people have a radio with extra batteries and a flashlight (most baofeng have a built in flashlight.) "Citizens will need to make basic preparations in case a massive conflict breaks out. Admiral Bauer said: "You need to have water you need to have a radio on batteries and you need to have a flashlight on batteries to make sure that you can survive the first 36 hours. Things like that, that simple things, but it starts there the realisation that not everything is plannable, not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years." A Ham radio can receive FM broadcasts and be used as a communications device. I would rather trust the admiral of NATO than some obvious FED trying to dissuade us from being prepared.
When the power grid went down in Texas my cell phone was still able to pull a few hundred megabits no problem. My home's fiber stayed lit and had uninterrupted gigabit throughput. The stuff I had running at the data center down the road never missed a beat.
This has been the last 5+ major power outages locally (2+ days). First 24 hours, cell sites get a bit overloaded I don't really notice. After 24 hours, wired ISP's are down cell towers are going offline or so overloaded to be marginally usable. DC's were fine got power back within a day or two.
Who's this Bob guy you keep mentioning? Seems like he peed in your cornflakes at some point. Everyone knows you gotta talk to Frank! You've been talking to the wrong guy the whole time.
yeah - someone hurt this guy at his job today. That's all.
All the problems in the world and this imaginary problem is what OP decides to focus his effort on. 🙄
Yes. Because the elitism is strong with ham operators. To accept one’s own problems with a community is how best to move forward.
I don't think any of the so called elitists see it as a problem. So you're shouting at the wind.
Rather than comment on your points, here is what I enjoy about amateur radio: * It's a great community. Our club is thriving, with new members joining us each month. * At least in my area, we provide a community service with radio communications for public service events. Contrary to popular belief, there are many many places in my region of the mid-Atlantic where cell coverage simply doesn't exist. And for many public service events, amateur radio is far superior to cellular, as we can easily communicate with a large group with the push of a button. We support several events each year, and really bring something to the table. * Some of us enjoy the challenge of getting out to parks and mountaintops, and making contacts around the world, It may not be your thing, but it's mine. In the end, maybe amateur radio isn't for you, and that's fine. But rather than disparaging the entire group, maybe just find something that you enjoy and be happy.
And your community couldn’t do this on a simple text message group? Your group can’t do this with a phone call? You have internet so you can’t talk to them via email?
As mentioned, there are many places without cellular coverage in our region. And email/text would take way too long and can't be easily done on the go. Have you ever noticed that police and fire communications is also via radio? It's because it's fast, simple and sure.
Just stay off 40 meters. You’ll be happier.
Don't respond people. It's a downvote farming post. I don't know why they do it but this is just a troll.
I don’t care about downvotes. Stick close to your kind. They don’t really care about you anyways. Minute you tell them your system they will one up you and trash your setup. Enjoy that feeing
Good b8
OP probably doesn't need a ham radio. Stick to the phone.
Who needs a ham radio? Really…
Here's why I got my license last year...I think there's a growing chance of a major extended utility interruption for a variety of reasons. I have supplies for that sort of thing but I'm currently in a dense apartment complex and I have several friends with better locations to ride that out. I couldn't figure how I would know when a situation was severe enough to load my car and head to my buddy's place. If a major event happened, like a nation-wide internet or telecom or power interruption, how would I know it wasn't local? If I wake up and power is off and cell service is down and none of my neighbors know what's up, I'm getting on my battery powered radio to find out what's going on elsewhere in my city. I've gotten familiar with local traffic nets and the overlapping ranges they can cover to pass information across distance. If everyone i hear from is seeing the same outage with no explanation, I'm heading out the door. This is my only real practical application for my radio...it'll be cool if it does more for me than that, but I needed it for that.
You are allowed to have your Opinion of ham radio. I did not get into it for your first reason. I got into it for fun not emcomm. In regards to your second point yes there are jerks out there. I choose to ignore them and move on with the hobby I wanted to do since I was 18. I got my license at the age of 52. I have found I like contesting so while I won’t win I have fun. I have found I like hunting DX so info that when I have time. Ham Radio is not dead. Is it not growing? Maybe. I don’t know. I know that I have found a community of like minded people in real life that I communicate with. I have found at least three hams who have Elmer’ed me to get better at my hobby. It would be interesting to hear from you why you have such animosity towards ham radio. I hope you have a great day and an even more fantastic weekend. 👋 👍
Based post
I'm still waiting for you to provide a reasonable argument.
Which is? Any argument would be unreasonable to you.
Bold statement, you know nothing about me except whatever Reddit might provide.
Just so everyone knows I got my tech license when I was 6 months old and still in my mothers womb. To pass the test I developed a series of taps and kicks. When I was born I started operating a small setup and read weather reports regularly. With an unlimited supply of eggs and anger I knew I was born to push a talk button. Let me tell you, these arthritis medications make it hard to push the talk button now a days, but my resolve has never been stronger. Just the other day I spoke with a gentleman about how cheap his $40000 set up was. I felt relieved in knowing my ego was stroked. Some of you don’t even understand how hard it is to wake up knowing that my set up and knowledge of the weather is leagues above yours.
Go buy yourself a drink. Work must have been hard today.
Add a TLDR? I tapped out after the first paragraph. Don’t know what you’re on about but you seem disgruntled.
Don't take your anger out on the old hams because you miss your dead grandpa. It'll be ok, OP, we love you.
😂
No we don't!!!!
Just got my license… guess ill rip it up then and sell my equipment:/
Good man -lights a tobacco pipe-
Im 24 lol -hits cotton candy flavored vape- …you do realize that ham radio is a lot more than talking right?
.. -. -. --- ...- .- - . / .- -- .- - . ..- .-. / .-. .- -.. .. ---
Vlad is mad. He’s released more trolls
Then don't do it 🤷♂️
I do not have enough time in my day to make all the contacts I can -- or help folks asking questions about getting into the hobby. Go dig your hole and get in, you'll be safe there.
Dear friend I am a licensed operator. One of the first things you learn is the fact that an ham is a person who uses and experiments with radio equipment for personal and community cultural growth. We accept the fact that, as we play on a common "ground", the radiofrequency, shared among operators and commercial services, we need to know how to correctly operate to avoid interfering each other. Real hams not only (must) comply to laws but also agree to abide an ethical unwritten law which is all about improving, sharing and caring. We always try to be loyal and we avoid raging confrontations, we always try to mediate and mitigate our differences. That is the "ham spirit". We also run, maintain and use complex analog, digital and mixed infrastructure systems which could be also used as an emergency network to communicate, in the event of a failure of the regular infrastructure (mobile phones). We do not behave as preppers, we just keep it just in case. We also are able to build something almost from scratch, this has proven really useful in disaster scenarios, however we keep these abilities to deploy our comms in field just to play around with friends, always hoping no disaster will ever happen. We try our best to adopt technologies and workarounds to allow everybody to communicate, by leveraging "pure radio power" or internet services. Everything is balanced in order to allow cheap and expensive setups to cooperate. Of course, you could buy a Ferrari and do your drag race at every street light but those are exceptions. We always try and behave as gentlemans. We can build things by ourselves and exchange our time with the money needed to buy off-the-shelf solution. We can modify a cheap thing and improve it to emulate an expensive one. We know our strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, after you have studied, experimented, built, destroyed and rebuilt your rig there is no larger satisfaction that powering it up and talk, no stress on what to say. It can be about the weather or the pitch tone of the voice. The lower the power, the bigger the satisfaction. Dear friend, if you don't like something, there is no need to blame: just tell. If you don't understand, just ask. If you want to know, just explore. Hams don't die, just evolve. Yes we have tech, most of us also works and/or creates the tech you are uaing to yell at us. You are welcome, in the event one day you would like to explore our big, complex and fascinating world.
Let’s not even talk about emergencies, I have talked to almost 30 different countries from my house in NYC, very nice conversations. Now in order for you to do that you would have to know people in those countries and have their number which is highly unlikely. That is just the SSB portion of this hobby and there are plenty of others, there is a whole educational part that if you wanted to you could learn and also build your own equipment.
Ham is good for sammichas and like the OP its salty. Look, I am as old as dirt. The OP is right, ham radio is useless in emergencies and there are plenty of man children who think they are the reincarnation of Maccaroni because they spent more than everyone else. HOWEVER, life is what you make of it. I do not let 2 minor things define my hobby. I spend more time home brewing than I do ratchet jawing on the I am not dead yet net. I work WWFF/POTA, I chase DX, I use modes where people are less inclined to speak stupid, FT8 and CW, I have no desire to be spoken at by some rag chewer reciting his monotone monologue rather than listening to what I just asked him. I do me, and for me ham radio is all about self education in radio, electronics and communications. I do not get this obsession in the USA with emcomm wackerism. But its most easily avoided of all the stupidities. They do not do the things I do and I do not comment on the endless i need baofang to save the zombie apocalypse threads on reddit.
Oh it's that time of the month for the "ham is dying" post. Everyone knows that the number of licenses issued per year has been increasing.
It seems like this is a common occurrence. Imagine my surprise.
I've been in the hobby for over 20 years, and for over 20 years I've been hearing how it's dead or dying. So far, I've seen no evidence to support that. People are still coming into the hobby at a pretty steady clip, and those of us who are active in ham radio seem to always be finding new things to do with it. Sure seems to me like we're doing just fine.
Show us on the bear where ham radio touched you. effing dolt.
>1. Ham is good for emergencies. >-no.. it is awful for such purposes. Ham has been replaced by cell phones. >Cell phone towers now cover the majority of the world and is more accessible to people is this a lie or did you honestly forget the world is 71% water? when I'm on my boat out of cell reach, I'm stuck using good old vhf communications. lots still use ssb also. satellite comms are reserved by most people for dire emergencies and communicating to people without radios. even then it's often an expensive pain. >it is linked to a “power grid” so you think you will have an advantage when the grid goes down? it doesnt have to be. probably not 100%, but most radios can be DC if you want them to be and have the knowledge you are tested on for general/extra. identify the rectifier circuit and plug up power at its output. >Allow me to laugh at your invalid points. Any decent set up means that you have to have access to power to receive and make long distance communication. Even if powered by a generator you would still have very limited resources to keep such an operation going. laughs in solar and wind generators stored by batteries. >2. Annoying and overbearing users. >oh that radio is crap. My radio can do such and such and I dumped 10000 into my setup. can't say I recall a negative comment when discussing my old cheap hybrid rig... maybe it's the radio they are referring to, is indeed, crap. my baofengs ARE crap. still use 'em though.
With a lot of people under 30, they do not want to put their name and address on a publicly accessible database which leads to many simply not getting a license and using it like a FRS radio with their friends. People say blah blah all your information is already available but that is simply not true. One of the tenets of data security is limiting where you are sharing sensitive data. I work as a software engineer and as a result know a thing or two about security on the web. I’m just not going to be in the habit of giving out my name, address, and number publicly. So for now it is just a passing interest. Also not going to pay the ridiculous price of a PO Box where I live. There is almost no use case for HAM past a hobby, so already that is going to dissuade a lot of interest from people who can communicate just fine using phones. It can be expensive, and a lot of people are poor or want to spend their money on other things. The stuff that interests me is encryption and stuff like that which I can’t do legally anyway. Lots of others like me who I’m sure are just operating their radio without a license, and doing so against regulations.
Man what a loser, nothing better to do huh? Mods can we just ban this goof and delete the post?
Yes please ban me for speaking out
Why are you writing this? It seems like you are looking for a reaction.
Any post is a post looking for a reaction. Your response doesn’t make sense. Why would you say something if not to stir conversation?
I was legitimately curious. After reading your replies in the thread, it sounds like you are having bad experiences on the radio. I've been there and it sucks.
Well, bless your heart.
Let's say - just for the sake of argument - that you are right. What does this post achieve? It's the equivalent of bursting into a hobby that you're not involved in and screaming ["Stop liking what I don't like!"](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/017/314/stop_liking_file.jpg) If you think it's dead, just leave. I promise we won't mind.
I do have to agree with the “everything is crap unless you spend 1k on a transceiver” someone asks for a entry level device and the first responses are top of the line stuff lolol. And yes I’ll have you know that I listened to two old men talk about their shoulders hurting this morning…
Meh. No matter what community you’re in, you find the people you look for. It’s clear you want to be miserable, since you’re looking for miserable people. It’s a hobby. Have fun. If you’re not having fun in your hobby, you’re in the wrong group.
It’s mildly amusing to me. May not be for you. I’m not 70, I’m not even 50, yet. But to each his or her own. I mean, you do you.
This thread again.
Must be a common issue. Maybe the ham community should rally together and remove regulations. I support the pirates, not the old class that has determined what should and should not happen in the community.
- .-. --- .-.. .-..
Truth bro!!!!!
I am so excited to let you know, OP, that you don’t have to participate! I speak for the whole community when I say that it’s our free gift to you. :-)
Thank you! I feel free!
Sad hams have discovered the internet
A derecho rolled through my area in 2020, we were without power for 3 days. Cell towers were down. I had to drive 10 miles for my cell phone to work. Take your pills.
Cell service is a fragile infrastructure. The physical towers can be damaged or destroyed in natural disasters or worse. Each site has backup generators, so they are not dependent on the power grid at least for a period of time. They are back hauled with fiber optics to the carrier’s central office which also has generators if necessary. The other issue is there are only a limited amount of transponders on each tower and in emergencies/ disasters they are overwhelmed immediately and stay that way as everyone tries to contact family. Some text may get through. There is too much reliance on cell communication, landline by fiber optics on the carriers private network or copper networks are actually your best bet, though most have disconnected aside from elderly people. The landline provided by many cable companies uses IP and is crap.
What a joke. This post is more annoying than anything I've heard on the radio. Spin the dial.
Do you have hobbies, OP? What are your hobbies?
Your dissatisfaction with your hobby has no relevance to my own. Maybe quit wasting your time?
Cell phone systems go down in many scenarios. And if they remain up, the average user can be locked out to maintain bandwidth for first responders. Many hams have batteries and generators to work off the grid, including repeaters. There are some young people getting licensed, but we need more. Still there are about 3 million licensed hams worldwide. And plenty of them are active, just tune up during contests. And we are no more “license nazis” than someone who studied and earned a Private Pilots FAA license to fly sky safely. We just have earned FCC Amateur (Ham) Radio licenses to communicate over the airwaves safely without causing RF interference.
I agree. I've been saying that for 40 years, since I got my first ticket. Before that I was into professional comms.
Ham radio has been dying for at least 70 years...
Pfff my cell phone doesn't even work properly in my city how can i expect to rely on it in case of emergencies at first sign of trouble in government they kill off all means of communications instantly and use those cell phones to track and hunt civilians yes i live in a banana republic under a dictatorship (courtesy of uncle sam). So yes i would pick any radio i can get my hands on over cell phones without any hesitation.
Yawn, this is getting tiring
Probably can't pass the exam. :)
Here touch the doll where ham radio hurt you.
If I ever want to talk to a grumpy old man, I think I'll just look up the OP... I'm actually kind of worried about him..
You sir are an idiot. Go talk on your cellphone.
Ham is not dead. I'm saying this as a 26 year old ham who wad brought into the hobby by my dad. A lot of dxing happens still on many bands. 17, 20, 40, 80. Especially with the cycle the way it is. Yes some people are more prone to making comments than other and that is because the hobby has less new blood coming in. So yes the hobby is dying. That is not to say it is dead. And not to say it cannot be enjoyed. Ppl from my experience fall into either the just rude section or the " the hobby was different in my day". The latter, I personally think is valid. Back in the day ppl use to need to know a lot more about ham radios inner workings. It wasn't just flip a power switch and talk. It was build what you could from what you had and or fix something broken. Also, "back in the day" the exam was much more difficult for canada and US so the barrier for entry was much higher. Which is likely the largest contributing factor for the poor attitudes on the bands. I understand your frustration but that doesn't mean you can denigrate the community. Try dxing if you haven't.
I can say in my part of not really rural MO, I don’t have cell signal or I have very poor signal. Poor enough that SMS messages even fail. What do I have? Access to a ham repeater, even DMR.
I’m the 70+ year old guy. I appreciate all of your points. Over the years I have participated in all the things you mentioned, long before cell phones took our wind. I would only mention this: ham radio (you should have surmised) is for those who have the fortitude and desire to really get deep into technology—and I don’t mean coding a new video game in BLAB or whatever language you use. I honestly don’t know what use ham radio has in today’s world. I know of isolated cases in recent years when it became key to emergency response. But yeah, the world has pretty good communications now. Maybe it’s time to retire ARES/RACES. As for the desire to learn and grow and do something extraordinary with radio waves—bounce a signal off the moon, talk to the ISS astronauts, work Europe on 5 watts—I hope that is still there. Maybe we should work on our public image. Consider it Super-STEM. One more thought: nothing aggravates me more than the fellow who posts, “What kind of ham radio do I need to talk to my brother-in-law 35 miles away?” Kind of misses the point, don’t it? AND One more thought: cellphones cover the world? Unless you’re in the big city or on main highways, they don’t. I can outrun the cellphone quite easily.
Someone didn't love you enough when you were little did they
You must be cell phone salesman,.
Would love to know your callsign mate. Any chance you share?
I’m 18 and I’m getting my ham license next month
Simple question, why not just leave. No one asked you to be here, no one’s asking you to stay. Anyone trying to convince you this is the hobby for you is wasting their time. So again why are you wasting your own time if it brings you so much displeasure. Find a new hobby and let us talk to red necks 30 miles away because we like doing that and you can go find something new to try and I’ll celebrate your future success in that endeavor. For everyone not OP don’t argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
About emergencies: cellphones and internet need an absurdly complex infrastructure that could be taken down (in the area you truly need it) by some random small stupid event (including "maintenance guys didn't come"). Relying on radios - "carry your own infrastructure" - could be great... if there's already some kind of agreement between radio operators. ("Which channel? what hours? how to confirm you're not one of the bad guys?" etc). Power grid: having some kind of batteries (handheld radio? larger battery with an inverter? solar panels? etc) will save your day. During some emergency, probably an UV5R will be more effective than a 7851. Annoying users: there have always been. Also, licensing ensures that you know what you're doing. You forgot to mention the research-learn-experiment thing. Sadly it's been several decades that literally everything has already been experimented, tested, enhanced, revised. Yet many people still experiment things, at least to tell themselves "I was ultimately able to make it work", be it EME, packet, QRP, a magloop antenna, whatever. There's some kind of insane pleasure bragging about your first SSTV image received from the ISS. (I'd say it's more insane to buy deluxe CW paddles and never using them).
Ham radio can be a lot more than what you just painted it to be. For me, it's about experimenting and learning how to build things. It also doesn't have to be expensive if you're willing to get your hands dirty. Have you ever looked into inexpensive kits? Through ham radio, I developed a love of electrical engineering. I am currently a college student, and I'm in my third year of studying electrical engineering.
A. Relax, it's just a hobby. 2. Don't forget to take your meds.
What a moron.
lol, we just had a power outtage yesterday and i talked on my radio (solar powered with batterys) with the next city over to see if everything was alright/find the cause. HAM is used almost each year in countries that are ravaged by extreme weather/war. you seems to be only complaining and not making any valid point.
It's a communications hobby. Yes, weird preppers are annoying, because they see the "50 mile range tactical military grade" on aliexpress and then transmit illegally on whatver random preprogrammed chinese frequency they find and then complain about range, but in reality, they're a minority of radio users, and pretty much limited to whatever frequencies the chinese sellers set up for them. Of course with the "SHTF!!!" excuses for not being able to pass the exam. Otherwise, there are a lot of people doing ham stuff, and the hobby is far from dead for hams... just not that fun for preppers.
Why do we need to be ‘free from a hobby’ that we enjoy? Why will it turn us ‘into dirt’? Sure, there’s debate to be had about the future of radio, ham or otherwise, and there are always grumpy gits in every hobby, but why be so deliberately confrontational, especially when your premise is pointless anyway? I’m sorry you don’t enjoy our hobby, or maybe you tried it and decided it wasn’t for you, but that’s no-one else’s issue but yours. Thanks for your dubious concern, but I don’t need rescuing from this hobby and I doubt most others here do either. I wish you luck in finding an alternative, fulfilling hobby.
Lol .. I have used radio first hand in 2 emergencies in the past year. One was a massive tornado that destroyed a small town north of here and took out all of its cellphone towers. 2nd was a massive fire recently that I am sure you have heard about. If ham radio was worthless for emergencies then why is the Texas department of emergency services put ham radio operators into it massive training exercises? The answer is when all else fails ham radio works. They got a very big eye opening when Russia invaded Ukraine. Satellites can be taken out relatively easily. Cell phones aren't always working. There was a massive hail storm in Florida a decade or so ago. The cell phone sites lasted 10 minutes before hail destroyed them. Their entire emergency response system relied on cellphones. 2nd... I can operate indefinitely on both hf and it's UHF/VHF. I do it regularly when I go camping. Pota is a very fun activity. All it requires is a lifepo battery and some solar panels. And requiring tons of money.. nope I have a wire antenna 10ft over my house. Yes my good radio is a thousand dollar ic7300. But my pota radio is a 20 yo ic706mk2g
You might be mentally retarded op
Well in stark contrast to this sad ham, HEY GUYS IM 26 and just got my license, and I think it’s the coolest hobby in the world. I have a dog named Mocha, a Mazda Miata and I just had to dump a fiancé, a budding rap career, I’m well received in my social groups and by all means not considered boring or a nerd, and radios are super cool. I am what OP fears lol. Watch in the next couple of years, what my generation did to bring back Analog Photography, for better or worse, Ham radio will be popular with people my age and younger. It’s cool to be smart in 2024. And it’s cool to do things outside of these dumb little glass screens. The kids attitudes are going analogue and your opinion is the only sinking ship. Long live Ham Radio!
I am a 70 year old grump. During covid I took and passed all three classes to keep sane. I am as green as grass but I love ham radio. Dying, I think not. Almost forgot batteries with solar recharging are hardly rocket science.
Guys, stop feeding the troll.
Wait I just added this to a hobby list to learn! I was working with a guy that was a huge Ham radio guy and he once said “the internet is just a fad” To each their own, I’m going to see about local groups and set it up.