The Amateur Radio Hobby has become Stagnant! Update 6/21/2023!
Our Hobby is Dying!
Update 6/21/2023. ARRL Field Day.
Field Day is soon upon us and what no better way to celebrate our Hobby than to Boycott the ARRL sponsored event.
Once upon a time Field Day was a critical event in our national defense as it provided a backup communications system in the event of some disaster. Now Elon Musk, Cell Phones and the Internet have filled that role. Think about it, at max only half of the US Hams have HF privileges, and the other half are trying to program their $35 Baofeng's.
But now it is an ARRL event aimed at selling you an appliance box you absolutely don't need just so you can play Field Day! The premise is that you will smoke that new rig on a portable generator which will result in you buying more new gear to replace the gear you don't need.
This caper is designed to support the Far East Offshore Radio Manufacturers who represent the advertising base of the ARRL.
Hams need to stand tall and show the Newington Mafia how the cow ate the cabbage.
Stay off the air on Field Day and resist supporting the event!
73's
Pete N6QW
Update 6/20-2023. The Names of the Past.
Certain hams were very instrumental in moving our hobby forward and those include the likes of Lew McCoy, Doug DeMaw, and Wes Hayward. Only Hayward is still with us. But anyone who was active homebrewing in the 1960's and 1970's these names paved the way with articles in QST (before it became an advertising brochure).
Of import was that their designs were spare but feature rich with capability. Critical to their designs were things like analog VFO's and discrete components.
Find copies of the December 1989 and January 1990 QST for the two-part article by W7ZOI on a 20M QRP SSB transceiver. It is a classic and today this radio still does a yeoman's job.
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Good friend N2CQR received an input on his blog that he (literally, he alone) is responsible for making our beloved hobby to become stagnant. The person making the input cites N2CQR's many documented projects as using only old school discrete components and simple architectures like analog VFO's and direct conversion receivers using diode rings. N2CQR's projects reject the use of IC's, embedded computers and no SDR approaches.
First and foremost, our Hobby has indeed become stagnant but not because of N2CQR, nor his simple architectures or analog VFO's.
One fundamental point is that the resultant projects from N2CQR are fully on the air usable and has even resulted in his recent DXCC achievement using nothing but simple, discrete components, no IC's and totally homebrew equipment. Many of the DX contacts were made running QRP. His rigs hear and can be heard!
But the person chiding N2CQR was absolutely correct but for all of the wrong reasons.
Our hobby 100 years ago was driven by hams working alone in their shacks using homebrew parts but all important, driving some innovative techniques. It was the hams who exploited 200 meters and down to open up worldwide communications.
A terrible event occurred 60 years ago when the ARRL decided that to expand their membership and to make more advertising revenue that the license requirements should be made less rigorous. Today we have the Box Top Extra's (BTE's) who simply send in a box top and get an extra ticket. Some 50 years ago when I got my extra ticket you had to know stuff. Today it is the Sargent Schultz syndrome you know nothing, and you are on the air.
The second problem is the average ham today has only two interests and that is contests and operating a fact stated by the IARU and fostered by the ARRL. QST used to be a technical publication sharing articles and experiments from grass roots hams. Today is it a catalog of the latest expensive appliance boxes from the Far East.
Just a few publications today focus on projects as most have succumbed to the economic forces of offshore advertising of appliance boxes and nothing more. The G-QRP Club SPRAT is a notable exception where the focus is building stuff!
In effect most hams only want to be users and not involved with the technology. Few hams can explain how their rigs work and worse have no clue about how to fix them when they fail!
The ARRL provides some interesting data as only 1/2 of the US Hams have HF privilege's while the other half only Technician class licenses. We are talking about 380,000 in each class of license. Of that I would posit only about 1% actually homebrew their rigs -- maybe around 7500. I would call that more proof of the stagnant condition in our hobby. If we are not homebrewing, then where is the source innovation?
We should all stand on a chair and applaud N2CQR for documenting projects that hams with very limited skill sets can undertake and learn about the innards of our rigs. He is providing a stepping stone to greater more complex projects -- in essence a 1st step.
About a year ago the ARRL released a video about their new RF Lab (W1HQ). The lab consisted of a movable table and two computer screens controlling two racks of very expensive appliance boxes. There was no room in their RF Lab for any home brew radios. You saw no test equipment nor a soldering iron!
Sixty-four years ago, tomorrow I received two ham tickets (KN3IXU and K3IXU (Technician)). My General Class, Advanced Class and Extra Class licenses were administered in an FCC Field office and involved no box tops. I had to know stuff. I was an avid builder up until about a year ago and have designed and built both simple and complex (read SDR) radios.
To do this I started with simple circuits and learned about the hobby and what makes things tick. Mine and N2CQR projects are the exception and regrettably limited to about 1% of the US Ham population. So yes, our Hobby is STAGNANT!
BTW Michael, most of the innovative stuff is now coming from offshore hams. The answer lies in economics -- few have the affluence to plunk down $6K for an appliance box. Thus, they use what they have or can scrounge from old Russian TV sets.
73's
Pete, N6QW
