OT: Black Radio Hams

I somehow doubt that very much.

And I think we have most of them on here (now)! ;-(

I think it's often a function of the level of interest in the general population. Like, years ago before International communication was fairly cheap and very easy, being a RA means you could often make contact with people far away and whilst many were quite obsessive / eccentric (where it took over their lives / houses and gardens), some were more modest and (so) considered more 'normal'. ;-)

It's similar (to many) with those who play golf or go (coarse) fishing where to many it seems to be as much about the gear than the thing.

On a dog walk we often pass many fishermen and they all seem to be equipped for a months camping and carry their gear about on a very large barrow!

A mate bought a s/h 30K Merc (AMG SLK 63?) convertible and sold it 6 weeks later because he couldn't get the golf clubs in the boot with the roof down. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

best thing for it....

I see ....you were not really a REAL radio amateur then but a class B technician.....a real radio amateur is class A and uses the HF short waves and came into the hobby in an entirely different path to you...

I only wanted to do HF in '74 and not waste my time on v/uhf radio telephone ...

I see what you did there...tee hee

what you wanting a party hat and a balloon ? .... tee hee

cole fmf bernie ?

spot on

very true

and hammy mens usually give up and take up another hobby....never mind it ensures a supply of cheap gear for those with a lifetime interest in radio ,,,,,,

plenty of masons in the hobby

have to say in recent years there has been a large increase from none to loads of cross dressing hams at rallies....even saw one at a Scottish rally couple of years ago ......but I suppose it is an ideal hobby for weirdos.....

Ok.

Good lad. ;-)

And you would actually give anything away if I did?

The point being that the level of 'enthusiast' has changed over the years, going from having to build it yourself because affordable stuff didn't exist, or didn't exist in the form you wanted or just for the S&G's.

The same applied to model aircraft, many early models being scratch built, then from kit and then mostly TRF (/ RTR cars / boats).

Part of racing RC cars and boats was the building of them ... 'the man and what they have built', not just how much money you could spend. I'm sure the same was the case for early RA's, seeing who could get the best distance (with *home made* kit)?

I actually resigned from an off road RC buggy club 'in protest' (after winning the season <weg>) of the fact that the youth (even then) often didn't have the funds that some had or were willing to apply to the sport and I could see them getting disheartened. So I started up an RC Stock Car club because 1) we could race all year, 2) the cars were nearly indestructible (so they could a) finish each race and b) weren't forced to spend fortunes on parts and 3) the rules were it really was a 'stock' class, you only ran what they came with.

And it ran quite well for a couple of years but even then, the youngsters got bored and moved on.

Cheers, T i m

So, how much time would you say you typically spend / week doing it and what typically are you doing?

Cheers, T i m

Cole said that you were deed, Jim. Caught the Weegie plague, Jim. Dropped by the Glasgow-kiss of death, Jim.

Why?

Correct. I had no interest *what so ever* in becoming a class b.

Yup ... and unfortunately your attitude is partly *why* few people want to join the hobby, 'old men's club'.

And that was *exactly* why they first brought in the G7 licence (and 'Novice') etc in a desperate attempt to undo the damage done by people like you and to keep sufficient interest in the hobby to protect the frequencies for everyone. 'You don't use it you lose it'.

The other thing you need to consider is that whilst you do it for your reasons, many people see those reasons as completely pointless, given then generally have a far better level and quality of service in their pocket to anywhere in the world, and probably at less cost than buying and running all the kit you do.

In the same way I was given a nearly used box of 433Mhz walkie-talkies that came from a school because *everyone* on any school trip (inc the kids) have cell phones now so they didn't use them.

We have used them with a group of volunteers managing an event at a local park.

Cheers, T i m

The only time I've listened in the radio "hams" all they talked about was the weather and their latest equipment.

talk to my pall on 2m fm go up a hill with my FT290 ssb work 40 and 80 mobile go on 40 from the house with my dipole and go on 80m with my end fed wire ( L match) 4m mobile with jpole and 1/4 wave mobile 70cm fm

oh right

no...it is uk radio amateur that is dead without my input......been dead for about a week now.....

The bloke's a tosser. I'd be amazed if he even knew Ohm's Law.

Used to be anoraks and BO at the rallies back when I was active. But yeah, now we're all expected to celebrate weirdness, I guess they're now finally revealing their true selves.

what were you then ??????

I don't care there will always be the right kind of people after others have departed

they shouldn't have bothered but the real reason was the dealers lobby to sell more equipment....

and there was a G1 before the G7 and after the G8 ....

I tried zello on the "amateur" channels and there was zero satisfaction doing that....

lucky you....not

spiffing

This was the decline of ham radio...ticky box exam gave us all the illiterate people who couldn't do a written exam...cw peer testing and all of a sudden the class B G8s who never wanted to go on HF suddenly with a small bottle of whisky to a friend peer tester got on HF and ignored v/uhf from then on...then the stupid two types of novice came and didn't help....then the three tier foundation brought all the cb knuckle dragging scumbags who couldn't hack the rae in the 80's became hammy mens...the class Bs revolted and 7000 of them who had no interest in HF suddenly became M3s for ten months then reverted back to their G8 call....What they really wanted all the time was access to HF and v/uhf has been quiet ever since....so give me none of this high horse not interested in HF stuff and accept this is how a once fine hobby has been trashed....

he is OK just a bit misguided ....