8 ms·

The trouble with HAM radio is that it isn't that useful anymore. We have amazing cell coverage, wireless broadband just about everywhere and the ability to soci

The trouble with HAM radio is that it isn't that useful anymore. We have amazing cell coverage, wireless broadband just about everywhere and the ability to socialize online. Ham used to be incredibly useful for global communications, rural areas with no phone service, and a way for people to stay socially connected in remote (or not remote) locations. This isn't needed in the vast majority of cases now. That has led to most hams active on the airwaves being an older demographic. And the way they try to recruit others into the hobby is obsolete because the need just isn't there. It's a 100% academic exercise, rather than a way to connect with anyone around the world. There is a newer aspect to ham which is modern digital radio, but most old timers have no knowledge or interest in that. There's a subculture that exists that does amazing work in that space, but it's disconnected from the old-timers that represent the face of ham radio. You'll find this subculture at DEF CON and similar events. Even the things about ham that are still useful, like the marine net on 14.3Mhz which we used in the 90s for transoceanic sailing is about to become obsolete with affordable internet in the mid-pacific or mid-atlantic becoming a reality. And polar bases are about to get polar orbit Starlink satellites for broadband. So the hobby really needs to transform it it's going to survive. But the old guard and new world are so disconnected, destruction and recreation may be a better way to think about it. My wife and I are both ham Extras and we run a cybersecurity company. She's KF1J and I'm WT1J. We're passionate about the hobby, but both see the writing on the wall. Ham right now is a solution looking for a problem. 73.

n8cpdx 5y ago
The one area where it's still relevant is disaster response, but even that is questionable. Here in Portland, the city puts a lot of effort into emergency preparedness and getting people trained on radio, but the vast majority of people involved are 55+. I have my doubts about how effective it will be in an actual emergency. I tend to think the effort would be better spent on hardening the existing cell networks, and being ready to deploy public safety LTE, cells-on-wheels or similar. Mass produced consumer tech should enable economies of scale for cell phones that aren't there for ham radios. Full internet isn't actually needed, even just a few independent cells would perform a lot better than the walkie talkies that the CERT teams use.
- mmaunder 5y ago
  Same here in King and Snohomish counties last time I checked. The SAR teams have been using repeaters. I agree re better cell coverage for that use case, which would include data that could make SAR teams way more effective by e.g. tracking search team coverage in real-time on a single view shared by the entire response. A lot of ham culture is around emergency comms, and every now and then it's useful. But a single portable starlink dish absolutely destroys what ham can do. It would allow for e.g. 50 people on a local wifi network all taking comms requests from people in an impacted area, and sharing the same digital 100Mbps link to get those comms requests out. Can even be self serve. Ham requires an operator occupying dedicated spectrum, serving one customer at a time.
- NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
  >The one area where it's still relevant is disaster response, but even that is questionable. I mean it's more than questionable, it's tending towards the ridiculous with no well-formed concept of operations. Even in large scale disasters, virtually the only real usage of ham radio has been for 'welfare' traffic ("tell Bob at 212-555-1212 that Alice got out before the fire reached her house"). Cellular providers now have COWs and COLTs for reinforcing networks where the fixed infrastructure has been affected. Iridium phones are easily available. Inmarsat BGAN terminals with high-speed data fit into a messenger bag. HF radio may be the only game in town if the really-big-one comes (HEMP / similar scenario) but it's just not relevant to either command-and-control or tactical operations in most disaster response scenarios.
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    I think you're overestimating the resiliency of cellular networks. After the Katrina hurricane, the FCC mandated that cell sites have at least 8 hours of backup power (which isn't a lot when power can be out for days or weeks), but the industry sued and got the rule replaced with 'self-regulation', with the predictable result: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv9j7/how-big-telecom-killed-rules-that-would-have-prevented-hurricane-ida-outages https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv9j7/how-big-telecom-kille... According to the latest report by the FCC, about 28.1 percent of the cell sites in the area impacted by Ida are offline, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without service. Another 354,699 residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama remain without landline phone, cable, or broadband service. https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/08/31/cell-service-status-ida-terrebonne-assumption-parishes/5662235001/ https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/08/31/cell-ser... The FCC report shows that as of 11 a.m. Monday, 52% of 2,759 cellular sites across 31 Louisiana parishes were offline as a result of Hurricane Ida. The majority of the downed towers — nearly 65% — were offline due to a lack of power, a problem that could persist for weeks in some parts of the state. In some cases, cell sites are down due to multiple issues, such as power outages, damage to the network or damage to the site itself. CoWs can help in a small disaster or providing service at a shelter, but when thousands of cell sites are offline, there's still going to be a lot of people cut off from communication.
sliken 5y ago
Do you hike? Even around the most popular areas in the USA (Yosemite, YellowStone, Tahoe, and many other national parks) it's pretty easy to get out of cell range. Similar with major highways, 5 in california is pretty good, but it's easy to not have a signal on 80 or 70 as you cross the country. I lost my dog and decided to track her, and all the systems I could find (up to $1,000) were either cellular or pretty much line of site. Ham APRS was AMAZINGLY better than anything commercial I could find. It does direct connections for decent range, but also there's surprisingly good APRS coverage using existing repeaters in the areas I hike in. http://aprs.fi http://aprs.fi allows global tracking if an APRS widget world wide, and trackers that fit in a dog collar are common and don't carry a monthly subscription fee.
- silisili 5y ago
  Can you elaborate on these trackers, how they work, and where to purchase? I've been looking for the past couple years for something like this I think.
  - sliken 5y ago
    Here's one: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs You can buy similar in board form, popular among the high altitude balloon communities. I use one on my dog's collar and my 2m radio will show me an arrow and distance to the dog. As a bonus I can call family/friend and have them check the world wide APRS map to see if the dog has gone near a repeater. It's also handy to check the weather, there's quite a few weather stations about and in the mountains the local forecast can be unreliable and a weather station that's MUCH closer than the nearest city can provide handy info on quickly changing weather conditions.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  Satellite connectivity is probably going to make that problem a thing of the past in the very near future.
- mmaunder 5y ago
  I do. And I live on Orcas Island, so lets use that as an example. We have repeaters on Mt Constitution which is 2300 ft. I live right next to it and I'm in shadow for repeater coverage. When we hike the lakes in the area, we also can't see the repeater, or each other thanks to topography. HF gear is too bulky to take with - even the QRP gear, and who has time to throw an antenna over a tree. Trust me, I want to believe. But the only practical use that my wife (KF1J) and me (WT1J) have for our ham gear is in the rare case where I'm on the boat far away from her and out of cell coverage and need to check in via the HF bands. I'm almost never away from cell coverage. For transoceanic stuff, that is still a common case, but it will soon be better served by portable global internet.
gsich 5y ago
>The trouble with HAM radio is that it isn't that useful anymore. We have amazing cell coverage, wireless broadband just about everywhere and the ability to socialize online. All insanely prone to failure. Power outage is enough, as cell towers don't have backup or only a very short amount. They also don't work without the backbone infrastructure.
- generalizations 5y ago
  Probably a lot easier to run a starlink node off a car battery than to use HAM radio in those situations.
  - mmaunder 5y ago
    Unboxing starlink was a transformative experience for me. It was a weird feeling literally getting internet in a box without cable, copper or DSL or even a rural dish pointed at a local tower where you have to worry about obstacles. I plopped the dish on the dirt and it just frikkin worked. It was at that moment I realized how that technology will absolutely transform global society. I'm from Africa and now do philanthropy in rural areas out there, and it's going to take a minute, but it's going to absolutely transform regions like that.
    - sliken 5y ago
      Traceroute over starlink, see if you can figure out where your uplink station is, and how far it is from you. From what I can tell the range is much more than cellular, but not all that much as far as worrying about hurricanes, large fires, and major power grid problems.
- mmaunder 5y ago
  Repeaters fail too. And the solar cycle has been at a low for the past few years for HF, but if you can wait until 2025, it's going to be amazing!! ;-) https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
- 5y ago
Johnny555 5y ago
You don't need to get too far out into rural areas to find places without "amazing cell coverage", and indeed no cell coverage at all. And anyone that's lived through a disaster (whether hurricane, blizzard, or regional power outage) can tel you that the cell phone network is just not that resilient. Maybe low earth orbit satellites will make satellite communications ubiquitous through cell phones, but we're not there yet. (The iPhone 13 was rumored to have satellite capability, it did not, but it sounds like it's technologically possible so we could see it in the not too distant future)
- mmaunder 5y ago
  Side note: We use Hughes Satellite internet when camping in BLM land and it works great. The only down-side is that the dish is almost 1 meter and takes up my entire truck bed. It takes 15 mins to point at the bird, which isn't a biggie. But the propagation delay is a killer. Around 900ms. Can't wait for RV Starlink!!
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    Yeah, if I spent significant time outside of cell range, I'd probably carry a real satellite phone or maybe one of the satellite communicators that let you send txt messages. Right now I just carry a personal locator beacon in case of emergency. I've been on the wait list for StarLink for 6 months, like you, I'm still hoping for the RV dish.
- linsomniac 5y ago
  That is true, but I will say that I had surprising amounts of coverage via Verizon ~5 years ago when I was offroading. I'd generally have to be up high, but most of my trails had enough coverage that I could check in with my wife or provide emergency communication within around 10 minutes drive of much of the trails I was on. Google Fi, on the other hand, has dramatically less coverage in those situations. I ended up getting one of those ReqQLink locator beacons, that has no monthly charge, after my son was running around like crazy during a off roading lunch break, and came too close to cracking his head on a rock.
- 5y ago
nerdwaller 5y ago
GMRS has been growing a good bit, at least in the off-road community. It’s a step up from CB but much less involved than HAM. It’s certainly more limited, but generally more than sufficient for most. Even better, when I go out with my immediate family+ for various outdoor activities they are covered under my license. I’ll keep my HAM license active, but I rarely use it anymore.
brightball 5y ago
IMO having at least a minimum ongoing Ham community is necessary globally as a precaution for society in the event of disasters. I don’t know how to go about maintaining that group, but it needs to be done. Call it a community service activity if needed.
resters 5y ago
that's like saying that surfboards are not useful because we have cruise ships. Radio is fun and a way to surf the ionosphere! 73
TimTheTinker 5y ago
FPV RC plane/drone flying is an interesting space in which an amateur radio license is required to be able to transmit at the required power.
na85 5y ago
>There's a subculture that exists that does amazing work in that space, but it's disconnected from the old-timers that represent the face of ham radio. You'll find this subculture at DEF CON and similar events. Is that subculture congregating anywhere on the internet? I find amateur radio interesting but I have zero interest in rag chewing about the weather or Donald Trump with a bunch of retirees.
- sliken 5y ago
  Try any of the digital modes, like say js8call. The newer software and technologies tend to have a younger and more diverse user base.
- tcmart14 5y ago
  Rag chewing about Donald Trump should be a violation of FCC rules since political discussions are not allowed.
  - na85 5y ago
    People skirt those rules all the time. Either way the runtime value of $topic was secondary to my point.
  - Stratoscope 5y ago
    In the US, that is not true at all. It is perfectly legal to discuss politics. It may be discouraged by other hams though. And it's particularly discouraged when talking with hams in other countries where the laws may be different.
treeman79 5y ago
Was at a meeting and people need going on about mobile hams being the only form of communications for a couple of weeks for small towns hit by hurricanes in Florida This was just a few years ago. Basically a dude in a minivan shows up. Puts up a 50 cable. And he is it. Lots of stories about how someone needed insulin and he would end up connecting to a random HAm in New York, who would email the right people and a few hours later Insulin arrived. Mostly it was about how to prep a vehicle to have a weeks water , power and other supplies. Was super cool.
8bitsrule 5y ago
> isn't that useful anymore Depends on what 'useful' means. When I got my novice ticket as a teen after learning Morse from a paper-tape machine, it was the start of a long, enjoyable technical learning curve. That's what I talked to other hams about, that's what I read QST for. I experimented with the bands and propagation (day, night, sunspot), tried different antennas and feedlines, different modes. I listened to the old-timer groups rag-chewing on 80 meters; mostly gear-talk. I listened to the utes to figure out how they worked, what they were for. When I got a computer, I had to learn to use interrupts to do baudot <=> ASCII conversion. FM, repeaters, DXing, contest country-counting, QRP ... all enjoyable as experiments. Hamming began with experimenters, and will continue with them. Beats watching your favorite films chopped up to sell you shit, or listening to FM-autopatch all afternoon.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
agumonkey 5y ago
there's still long distance radio, seeing a random midwest american connecting with a random russian dude up in siberia was mind blowing, SF like IRL
goodpoint 5y ago
> There's a subculture that exists that does amazing work in that space, but it's disconnected from the old-timers that represent the face of ham radio. You'll find this subculture at DEF CON and similar events. QRP? Things like WSPRnet? Events like https://hamvillage.org/dc28.html https://hamvillage.org/dc28.html ? (they are using Discord... urgh)

n8cpdx 5y ago

The one area where it's still relevant is disaster response, but even that is questionable. Here in Portland, the city puts a lot of effort into emergency preparedness and getting people trained on radio, but the vast majority of people involved are 55+. I have my doubts about how effective it will be in an actual emergency. I tend to think the effort would be better spent on hardening the existing cell networks, and being ready to deploy public safety LTE, cells-on-wheels or similar. Mass produced consumer tech should enable economies of scale for cell phones that aren't there for ham radios. Full internet isn't actually needed, even just a few independent cells would perform a lot better than the walkie talkies that the CERT teams use.

mmaunder 5y ago
Same here in King and Snohomish counties last time I checked. The SAR teams have been using repeaters. I agree re better cell coverage for that use case, which would include data that could make SAR teams way more effective by e.g. tracking search team coverage in real-time on a single view shared by the entire response. A lot of ham culture is around emergency comms, and every now and then it's useful. But a single portable starlink dish absolutely destroys what ham can do. It would allow for e.g. 50 people on a local wifi network all taking comms requests from people in an impacted area, and sharing the same digital 100Mbps link to get those comms requests out. Can even be self serve. Ham requires an operator occupying dedicated spectrum, serving one customer at a time.
NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
>The one area where it's still relevant is disaster response, but even that is questionable. I mean it's more than questionable, it's tending towards the ridiculous with no well-formed concept of operations. Even in large scale disasters, virtually the only real usage of ham radio has been for 'welfare' traffic ("tell Bob at 212-555-1212 that Alice got out before the fire reached her house"). Cellular providers now have COWs and COLTs for reinforcing networks where the fixed infrastructure has been affected. Iridium phones are easily available. Inmarsat BGAN terminals with high-speed data fit into a messenger bag. HF radio may be the only game in town if the really-big-one comes (HEMP / similar scenario) but it's just not relevant to either command-and-control or tactical operations in most disaster response scenarios.
- Johnny555 5y ago
  I think you're overestimating the resiliency of cellular networks. After the Katrina hurricane, the FCC mandated that cell sites have at least 8 hours of backup power (which isn't a lot when power can be out for days or weeks), but the industry sued and got the rule replaced with 'self-regulation', with the predictable result: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv9j7/how-big-telecom-killed-rules-that-would-have-prevented-hurricane-ida-outages https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyv9j7/how-big-telecom-kille... According to the latest report by the FCC, about 28.1 percent of the cell sites in the area impacted by Ida are offline, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without service. Another 354,699 residents in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama remain without landline phone, cable, or broadband service. https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/08/31/cell-service-status-ida-terrebonne-assumption-parishes/5662235001/ https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2021/08/31/cell-ser... The FCC report shows that as of 11 a.m. Monday, 52% of 2,759 cellular sites across 31 Louisiana parishes were offline as a result of Hurricane Ida. The majority of the downed towers — nearly 65% — were offline due to a lack of power, a problem that could persist for weeks in some parts of the state. In some cases, cell sites are down due to multiple issues, such as power outages, damage to the network or damage to the site itself. CoWs can help in a small disaster or providing service at a shelter, but when thousands of cell sites are offline, there's still going to be a lot of people cut off from communication.

sliken 5y ago

Do you hike? Even around the most popular areas in the USA (Yosemite, YellowStone, Tahoe, and many other national parks) it's pretty easy to get out of cell range. Similar with major highways, 5 in california is pretty good, but it's easy to not have a signal on 80 or 70 as you cross the country. I lost my dog and decided to track her, and all the systems I could find (up to $1,000) were either cellular or pretty much line of site. Ham APRS was AMAZINGLY better than anything commercial I could find. It does direct connections for decent range, but also there's surprisingly good APRS coverage using existing repeaters in the areas I hike in. http://aprs.fi http://aprs.fi allows global tracking if an APRS widget world wide, and trackers that fit in a dog collar are common and don't carry a monthly subscription fee.

silisili 5y ago
Can you elaborate on these trackers, how they work, and where to purchase? I've been looking for the past couple years for something like this I think.
- sliken 5y ago
  Here's one: https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs You can buy similar in board form, popular among the high altitude balloon communities. I use one on my dog's collar and my 2m radio will show me an arrow and distance to the dog. As a bonus I can call family/friend and have them check the world wide APRS map to see if the dog has gone near a repeater. It's also handy to check the weather, there's quite a few weather stations about and in the mountains the local forecast can be unreliable and a weather station that's MUCH closer than the nearest city can provide handy info on quickly changing weather conditions.
tinus_hn 5y ago
Satellite connectivity is probably going to make that problem a thing of the past in the very near future.
mmaunder 5y ago
I do. And I live on Orcas Island, so lets use that as an example. We have repeaters on Mt Constitution which is 2300 ft. I live right next to it and I'm in shadow for repeater coverage. When we hike the lakes in the area, we also can't see the repeater, or each other thanks to topography. HF gear is too bulky to take with - even the QRP gear, and who has time to throw an antenna over a tree. Trust me, I want to believe. But the only practical use that my wife (KF1J) and me (WT1J) have for our ham gear is in the rare case where I'm on the boat far away from her and out of cell coverage and need to check in via the HF bands. I'm almost never away from cell coverage. For transoceanic stuff, that is still a common case, but it will soon be better served by portable global internet.

gsich 5y ago

>The trouble with HAM radio is that it isn't that useful anymore. We have amazing cell coverage, wireless broadband just about everywhere and the ability to socialize online. All insanely prone to failure. Power outage is enough, as cell towers don't have backup or only a very short amount. They also don't work without the backbone infrastructure.

generalizations 5y ago
Probably a lot easier to run a starlink node off a car battery than to use HAM radio in those situations.
- mmaunder 5y ago
  Unboxing starlink was a transformative experience for me. It was a weird feeling literally getting internet in a box without cable, copper or DSL or even a rural dish pointed at a local tower where you have to worry about obstacles. I plopped the dish on the dirt and it just frikkin worked. It was at that moment I realized how that technology will absolutely transform global society. I'm from Africa and now do philanthropy in rural areas out there, and it's going to take a minute, but it's going to absolutely transform regions like that.
  - sliken 5y ago
    Traceroute over starlink, see if you can figure out where your uplink station is, and how far it is from you. From what I can tell the range is much more than cellular, but not all that much as far as worrying about hurricanes, large fires, and major power grid problems.
mmaunder 5y ago
Repeaters fail too. And the solar cycle has been at a low for the past few years for HF, but if you can wait until 2025, it's going to be amazing!! ;-) https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
5y ago

Johnny555 5y ago

You don't need to get too far out into rural areas to find places without "amazing cell coverage", and indeed no cell coverage at all. And anyone that's lived through a disaster (whether hurricane, blizzard, or regional power outage) can tel you that the cell phone network is just not that resilient. Maybe low earth orbit satellites will make satellite communications ubiquitous through cell phones, but we're not there yet. (The iPhone 13 was rumored to have satellite capability, it did not, but it sounds like it's technologically possible so we could see it in the not too distant future)

mmaunder 5y ago
Side note: We use Hughes Satellite internet when camping in BLM land and it works great. The only down-side is that the dish is almost 1 meter and takes up my entire truck bed. It takes 15 mins to point at the bird, which isn't a biggie. But the propagation delay is a killer. Around 900ms. Can't wait for RV Starlink!!
- Johnny555 5y ago
  Yeah, if I spent significant time outside of cell range, I'd probably carry a real satellite phone or maybe one of the satellite communicators that let you send txt messages. Right now I just carry a personal locator beacon in case of emergency. I've been on the wait list for StarLink for 6 months, like you, I'm still hoping for the RV dish.
linsomniac 5y ago
That is true, but I will say that I had surprising amounts of coverage via Verizon ~5 years ago when I was offroading. I'd generally have to be up high, but most of my trails had enough coverage that I could check in with my wife or provide emergency communication within around 10 minutes drive of much of the trails I was on. Google Fi, on the other hand, has dramatically less coverage in those situations. I ended up getting one of those ReqQLink locator beacons, that has no monthly charge, after my son was running around like crazy during a off roading lunch break, and came too close to cracking his head on a rock.
5y ago

nerdwaller 5y ago

GMRS has been growing a good bit, at least in the off-road community. It’s a step up from CB but much less involved than HAM. It’s certainly more limited, but generally more than sufficient for most. Even better, when I go out with my immediate family+ for various outdoor activities they are covered under my license. I’ll keep my HAM license active, but I rarely use it anymore.

brightball 5y ago

IMO having at least a minimum ongoing Ham community is necessary globally as a precaution for society in the event of disasters. I don’t know how to go about maintaining that group, but it needs to be done. Call it a community service activity if needed.

resters 5y ago

that's like saying that surfboards are not useful because we have cruise ships. Radio is fun and a way to surf the ionosphere! 73

TimTheTinker 5y ago

FPV RC plane/drone flying is an interesting space in which an amateur radio license is required to be able to transmit at the required power.

na85 5y ago

>There's a subculture that exists that does amazing work in that space, but it's disconnected from the old-timers that represent the face of ham radio. You'll find this subculture at DEF CON and similar events. Is that subculture congregating anywhere on the internet? I find amateur radio interesting but I have zero interest in rag chewing about the weather or Donald Trump with a bunch of retirees.

sliken 5y ago
Try any of the digital modes, like say js8call. The newer software and technologies tend to have a younger and more diverse user base.
tcmart14 5y ago
Rag chewing about Donald Trump should be a violation of FCC rules since political discussions are not allowed.
- na85 5y ago
  People skirt those rules all the time. Either way the runtime value of $topic was secondary to my point.
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  In the US, that is not true at all. It is perfectly legal to discuss politics. It may be discouraged by other hams though. And it's particularly discouraged when talking with hams in other countries where the laws may be different.

treeman79 5y ago

Was at a meeting and people need going on about mobile hams being the only form of communications for a couple of weeks for small towns hit by hurricanes in Florida This was just a few years ago. Basically a dude in a minivan shows up. Puts up a 50 cable. And he is it. Lots of stories about how someone needed insulin and he would end up connecting to a random HAm in New York, who would email the right people and a few hours later Insulin arrived. Mostly it was about how to prep a vehicle to have a weeks water , power and other supplies. Was super cool.

8bitsrule 5y ago

> isn't that useful anymore Depends on what 'useful' means. When I got my novice ticket as a teen after learning Morse from a paper-tape machine, it was the start of a long, enjoyable technical learning curve. That's what I talked to other hams about, that's what I read QST for. I experimented with the bands and propagation (day, night, sunspot), tried different antennas and feedlines, different modes. I listened to the old-timer groups rag-chewing on 80 meters; mostly gear-talk. I listened to the utes to figure out how they worked, what they were for. When I got a computer, I had to learn to use interrupts to do baudot <=> ASCII conversion. FM, repeaters, DXing, contest country-counting, QRP ... all enjoyable as experiments. Hamming began with experimenters, and will continue with them. Beats watching your favorite films chopped up to sell you shit, or listening to FM-autopatch all afternoon.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

agumonkey 5y ago

there's still long distance radio, seeing a random midwest american connecting with a random russian dude up in siberia was mind blowing, SF like IRL

goodpoint 5y ago

> There's a subculture that exists that does amazing work in that space, but it's disconnected from the old-timers that represent the face of ham radio. You'll find this subculture at DEF CON and similar events. QRP? Things like WSPRnet? Events like https://hamvillage.org/dc28.html https://hamvillage.org/dc28.html ? (they are using Discord... urgh)