5 ms·

Why have amateur radio at all, if we could all just chat on Zoom or Discord?

dylan604 4y ago
what? it has nothing to do with zoom or discord or whatever social darling you want to talk about next that has nothing to do with the price of tea in china.
- Eisenstein 4y ago
  Do you have issues with abstract thinking? I am not trying to insult you, but the way you responded to this comment and mine make me immediately suspect you only conceptualize things in concrete terms. Do you honestly not realize that the person you replied to was referencing that 'why' is a pointless question when the point is non-conformity and not literally asking why people don't just use Zoom or discord?
  - dylan604 4y ago
    because zoom and discord has nothing in line with the experience of the anonymous radio signal being tuned in by anonymous listeners. that's the one true thing that separates a OTA broadcast vs even the pirate streaming radio signal i proposed. once it's networked, logs are every where. sure, the broadcaster can turn off logging blah blah, but that's still not the same as tuning in OTA. social platforms involve invites, permission to join, etc. how that even closely relates is still beyond me and maybe beyond your vaulted abstract thinking skills as well?
    - ElevenLathe 4y ago
      This was my point (though apparently I've expressed it in a non-obvious way): even for the the same result (having a voice conversation with someone distant, or listening to some rock music selected by a DJ), the method (a 40 meter ham rag chew instead of a Zoom call, or an AM broadcast band transmission instead of a shoutcast station) matters and colors the experience.
      - dylan604 4y ago
        yeah, comparing a social chat platform to an potentially anonymous streaming environment is so not even the same thing i had no way of connecting your dots.
    - Eisenstein 4y ago
      I'm not sure why you are so reluctant to see other points of view or to entertain the fact that you might be missing something that other people are not, but I won't push it.
      - dylan604 4y ago
        well, i'm really not sure what this point is that you're harping on, but whatevs. i'm arguing that the experience of enjoying pirate radio is not solely tied to tuning in a signal via airwaves. pirate radio use airwaves as that's the signal that was available at the time to them. you could be at your house, in your car, or wherever and listen to it. the "it" was the thing though. it was non-rules conforming, it was whatever it wanted to be. people would call each other up, and "tune-in" to the same signal if they were in the same area. (it just so happens at that time, if you were calling someone, you were probably in their area.) now, radio isn't as widely used. instead, we can share the same signal via internet radios. you can still "call" a friend to have a shared experience listening to the same signal at the same time. only now, you are not limited in broadcast range nor local call range. it can be global. tell me what pirate operator would not have accepted a global reach vs whatever their transmitters could reach. how's that for entertaining a thought exercise? can you keep up, or do you need a minute to stretch and get warmed up still?
        Eisenstein 4y ago
        Thanks for the patronizing lecture but you completely missed the entire point.
        dylan604 4y ago
        Typically, if someone was to use the phrase "I have no idea what the point is" is pretty good context clue that I might need to reiterate what the point really is. So, let me ask for it point blank...what is the point you are wanting to make that I have entirely missed?
        Eisenstein 4y ago
JohnFen 4y ago
Zoom, discord, and the like all suffer from the problem that you have to use Zoom, Discord, and the like. That limits your audience to a particular demographic. Broadcasting over the airwaves is completely different in just about every way from those services. They don't really allow for the use case of radio.
hammyhavoc 4y ago
Because Zoom and Discord are a centralized point of failure. Remember all the times there's been downtime? Radio continues existing, and there's plenty of relay stations to get broadcasts further.

what? it has nothing to do with zoom or discord or whatever social darling you want to talk about next that has nothing to do with the price of tea in china.

Eisenstein 4y ago
Do you have issues with abstract thinking? I am not trying to insult you, but the way you responded to this comment and mine make me immediately suspect you only conceptualize things in concrete terms. Do you honestly not realize that the person you replied to was referencing that 'why' is a pointless question when the point is non-conformity and not literally asking why people don't just use Zoom or discord?
- dylan604 4y ago
  because zoom and discord has nothing in line with the experience of the anonymous radio signal being tuned in by anonymous listeners. that's the one true thing that separates a OTA broadcast vs even the pirate streaming radio signal i proposed. once it's networked, logs are every where. sure, the broadcaster can turn off logging blah blah, but that's still not the same as tuning in OTA. social platforms involve invites, permission to join, etc. how that even closely relates is still beyond me and maybe beyond your vaulted abstract thinking skills as well?
  - ElevenLathe 4y ago
    This was my point (though apparently I've expressed it in a non-obvious way): even for the the same result (having a voice conversation with someone distant, or listening to some rock music selected by a DJ), the method (a 40 meter ham rag chew instead of a Zoom call, or an AM broadcast band transmission instead of a shoutcast station) matters and colors the experience.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      yeah, comparing a social chat platform to an potentially anonymous streaming environment is so not even the same thing i had no way of connecting your dots.
  - Eisenstein 4y ago
    I'm not sure why you are so reluctant to see other points of view or to entertain the fact that you might be missing something that other people are not, but I won't push it.
    - dylan604 4y ago
      well, i'm really not sure what this point is that you're harping on, but whatevs. i'm arguing that the experience of enjoying pirate radio is not solely tied to tuning in a signal via airwaves. pirate radio use airwaves as that's the signal that was available at the time to them. you could be at your house, in your car, or wherever and listen to it. the "it" was the thing though. it was non-rules conforming, it was whatever it wanted to be. people would call each other up, and "tune-in" to the same signal if they were in the same area. (it just so happens at that time, if you were calling someone, you were probably in their area.) now, radio isn't as widely used. instead, we can share the same signal via internet radios. you can still "call" a friend to have a shared experience listening to the same signal at the same time. only now, you are not limited in broadcast range nor local call range. it can be global. tell me what pirate operator would not have accepted a global reach vs whatever their transmitters could reach. how's that for entertaining a thought exercise? can you keep up, or do you need a minute to stretch and get warmed up still?
      - Eisenstein 4y ago
        Thanks for the patronizing lecture but you completely missed the entire point.
        dylan604 4y ago
        Typically, if someone was to use the phrase "I have no idea what the point is" is pretty good context clue that I might need to reiterate what the point really is. So, let me ask for it point blank...what is the point you are wanting to make that I have entirely missed?
        Eisenstein 4y ago

JohnFen 4y ago

Zoom, discord, and the like all suffer from the problem that you have to use Zoom, Discord, and the like. That limits your audience to a particular demographic. Broadcasting over the airwaves is completely different in just about every way from those services. They don't really allow for the use case of radio.

hammyhavoc 4y ago

Because Zoom and Discord are a centralized point of failure. Remember all the times there's been downtime? Radio continues existing, and there's plenty of relay stations to get broadcasts further.