8 ms·

Just a matter of time before the amateur spectrum is taken by corps, isn't it?

gravypod 3y ago
In my opinion this is: 1) extremely likely to happen and 2) extremely avoidable. Right now there's no new blood replacing existing hams. The type of person who is into RF is also likely to be tech savvy these days. There are cool things you can do in ham with computers (ax.25, psk) but I've seen a lot of "that's boring come learn code to talk to people on field day" push back in most clubs. It is very sad. I have a feeling a new wave of hackers would flood radio if the community pushed for some spectrum to be community dedicated to digital comms. Outreach would be much easier. I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio.
- Mountain_Skies 3y ago
  Unfortunately, that's true at quite a few clubs, which are quickly shrinking in size. It probably wouldn't be difficult to stage a coup by having a dozen younger enthusiasts join and vote out the current membership, but it would be cleaner just to start up a separate club dedicated to digital modes. Younger potential members are more likely to congregate on a platform like Discord than join a local meatspace group so it's kind of moot.
  - RF_Enthusiast 3y ago
    My only experience with an amateur radio club: I studied to take my Technician Class exam, when I finished and passed, I found out I could take my General Class exam right then if I wished. When I took that second exam and failed, the club members looked absolutely delighted. I don't look like them, and their smiles felt like them saying "we knew the freak would fail". It felt incredibly alienating.
    - threeio 3y ago
      Thats a real shame... I've rightfully ignored all of the people who encouraged youth to join the hobby then shunned them for talking about topics that they weren't interested in or experimenting with different modes that they don't like... Ham radio has plenty of fantastic people in it, and like any other large group that tends to have its share of gatekeepers who believe we all should be able to copy morse at 45wpm in our heads. Shoot for the general again and use one of the online testing groups, simple and no judgement.
      - MandieD 3y ago
        HamStudy.org got me through the Technician and General, Anki-style. The website was free, the app was $4 (one-time purchase, includes all three levels, plus a few non-US exams). The volunteers proctoring all three of my online exams were anywhere from polite to actively cheering me on (before the exam), and all congratulated me when I passed.
- nvy 3y ago
  At least where I live, the vast majority of hams you encounter both in person and on the airwaves are grumpy aging boomers who are actively hostile to new people. Goodbye Amateur Radio, you won't be missed.
  - Brusco_RF 3y ago
    Can't wait for you to get older and start shaking your fist at the youngins who hate you for no discernable reason.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    One day, your area will suffer a major disaster like earthquake, hurricane, etc that will knock out all of the cell towers and possibly even home internet access as well. We'll see how much you miss the HAMs then
    - nvy 3y ago
      Yep, that's the fetish these guys have. Old grouchy misanthrope in a Tilley hat becomes local hero during an earthquake.
      - dylan604 3y ago
        and you sound exactly like the type of person that will be the first one crying to everyone that their wifi isn't working and they're missing some ridiculous TikTok time waste instead of helping out with the situation.
        mlyle 3y ago
        As a long time radio amateur, extra class, licensed since 1995: I don't really like the attitude. There's legitimate concerns about the longevity of the hobby. The average ARRL member is 68 years old. There's also a bigger and bigger disconnect between older operators and (the few) younger operators. Most of the hobby is not prepared to help with emcomm. And I think you (and a lot of people) overstate how helpful amateur emcomm is. In the past couple decades, local officials have gotten pretty good systems for getting high priority traffic out of the local area (which is what HF was previously for). Amateur volunteers relaying things in the local area are helpful in keeping disaster logistics running smoothly. Radio skills are not a big part of it, for the most part. I'm a teacher and passionate about radio. I don't know how to get my students into radio and make it into a good experience for them. They're way too likely to face hostility, racist political rants, etc. So I haven't pushed on it.
- dylan604 3y ago
  Of course it's boring to people that have had smart devices since the day they were born. These people can talk to anyone any where on the planet at any time of the day. HAM allowed people to talk to others across the horizon since pre-WW times. That's like saying playing with 2 tin cans and a string is boring. Duh! >I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio. Digital ruined a lot of things. Analog is/was just so much more open and ripe for hacking. Part of the advantage of digital was this security. However, going digital allowed us to do so much more, so it's a migration that could not be stopped. The only time HAMs are paid any attention are in times of disaster. Nobody will notice the loss of HAMs until the next major disaster near them, and then everyone will look around and ask "what happened to all the HAM guys?"
  - ke88y 3y ago
    > The only time HAMs are paid any attention are in times of disaster. Nobody will notice the loss of HAMs until the next major disaster near them, and then everyone will look around and ask "what happened to all the HAM guys?" It's true that the HAM clubs tend to put a cultural emphasis on emergency communications. But the primary value add is the community with its various memoranda and training/standardized way of handling emergency communications. The radio skill-set and equipment is more of a red herring, tbh. Even being tuned into the amateur radio community and living through several regional natural disasters that knocked out cell phone coverage, I've never actually seen HAM radio operators turn out to be useful in emergencies. I'm glad for the robustness provided by the HAM community, and I think allocating spectrum is a small price to pay for a set of volunteers who serve as yet another layer of "backup infrastructure". It's valuable to have that robustness. But tbh in an actual emergency or natural disaster I'd MUCH rather have my inReach mini than my hand-held. The HAM emergency communications narrative is vastly over-stated (and, honestly, self-important in a way that's off-putting to pretty much all non-HAMs).
  - 9659 3y ago
    Ham radio is an avenue to get kids interested in electronics. The spectrum is worth it for that alone.
- Brusco_RF 3y ago
  > I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio. Only 20 minutes? That's short for an RF guy rant! I used to work with ~20 mmWave guys. All older dudes, and MAN could they talk. There was one guy who's last name was "Park." We called it "getting Parked" when he would park his ass at your desk and prevent you from getting any work done for 1-2 hours at a time
- kawfey 3y ago
  https://youthontheair.org https://youthontheair.org i'm doing my part!
- bityard 3y ago
  "Those youngsters are ruining ham radio for us!" "Those boomers are ruining ham radio for us!" It's the ciiiiiircle of life...
  - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
    The gap between analog and digital modes is big enough that maybe it doesn't make sense for them both to be in the same club. The FCC relies on the clubs for volunteer labor to conduct testing and monitoring rule adherence, both of which the older guys seem to do very well but perhaps licensing should have a base component for understanding the general FCC rules and basic radio theory and then have separate analog and digital endorsements.
    - jimktrains2 3y ago
      > The gap between analog and digital modes is big enough that maybe it doesn't make sense for them both to be in the same club. This makes absolutely no sense. There's a whole base of physics, experince, antenna design, &c that are shared between analog and digital modes. Truthfully much more is shared than is different -- after all, in the end, digital modes are just another analog mode transmission.
      - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
        And yet here we are, with the analog gatekeepers happily leading the hobby into oblivion.
    - MandieD 3y ago
      See the amateur radio licensing system as a graduated driver’s license where the questions were put together by classic car guys who miss those giant pre-1973 oil embargo American muscle car engines, but is a necessity for running your electric-powered car with sensors and self-driving capabilities you and your tech community are developing out on public roads at speeds high enough to get anywhere, and with enough real traffic to get good feedback. The best way to influence the content of that exam? Join one of the more progressive VECs (Volunteer Exam Coordinators) as a volunteer examiner. Minimum license level for this is General, but really, Amateur Extra, so you can give all three exams. Which VECs are progressive? Start with the ones that host online exam sessions, and seem enthusiastic about it. The money is trivial ($15 per exam given, and they have to have three examiners watching one test taker), so they’re in it for the love (and possibly community clout). VECs, in turn, help the FCC set the question pools for the exams, and those are updated a little bit every four years. They’ve started adding a few questions about digital modes. I personally think they should have more content about safety and regulations, because that’s what really matters for playing nicely with others on the little bit of spectrum we have.
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  I really want to be interested in amateur radio but it doesn’t seem useful for anything. Since encrypted traffic is forbidden it seems useless for any personal project where I care about confidentiality or integrity. That mostly seems to relegate it to “talk to other people who are far away” and I can use the Internet to do that already.
  - stolenmerch 3y ago
    Confidentiality isn't really part of ham radio. You must be licensed and maintain a semi-public call sign. Part of the fun is learning the physics and engineering of RF and antennas. Makings contacts thousands of miles away usually takes skill and know-how beyond just jumping online and talking with random people. There are a lot of factors such as understanding wave propagation in relation to the earth and ionosphere. It's satisfying to, say, take your little 5W HF radio and mobile antenna into a remote area and make contacts with other operators. There are also lots of other cool aspects such as having privileges to create higher-power mesh networks, etc. It's a technical hobby and not for everyone, but rewarding.
    - livueta 3y ago
      You're accurately describing the status quo, but I think the parent's point is that a lot more people, me included, would be interested in defending these frequency allocations as a public good if they were more practically usable, and practically usable directly implies encryption. It's an awful lot of primo bandwidth for a bit of hobbyist DXing. I think the problem comes down to the HAM rules having been formulated pre-Internet, where the distinction between amateur and commercial activity was a lot more obvious: noncommercial ~= useless, commercial ~= useful. The advent of the Internet demonstrated the existence of a whole new category: noncommercial ~= useful. Today we've got all kinds of noncommercial but highly useful RF applications, e.g. Meshtastic, that are stuck in the relatively limited ISM bands (yes, I'm aware of HAM mode, but recall usefulness → encryption). Just using the Internet isn't a replacement for these projects, as they're intended to be useful offgrid or during times of centralized Internet disruption. IMO it's a crying shame that stuff like this, the bleeding edge of non-commercial usefulness in RF, is lower priority than ragchewing. Besides, it's not as if all the technical aspects go away under looser rules: propagation behavior etc etc are just as important, if not moreso, than they ever were. This doesn't mean just hand it over to the corps; there's a third way. Some chunks of current HAM spectrum should be converted to ISM. That doesn't mean a total free-for-all; duty cycle and EIRP limits apply and can be scaled appropriately to the frequency's propagation characteristics. The degree of freedom in usage in ISM bands drives innovation in protocol design to make better use of available bandwidth, as has happened with 802.11, so congestion/commercial use is actually a good thing.
- MandieD 3y ago
  Pay attention to some of the projects being funded by the ARDC - Amateur Radio Digital Communications. They’re on the lookout for people, especially younger people like school kids and college amateur radio clubs, doing new and interesting things with RF, which is really what the amateur bands were intended for. https://ardc.net https://ardc.net
- teeray 3y ago
  Legacy two-way radio is plagued by analog. FRS would be vastly more useful to the average person if some digital comms were permitted. People want to be able to text each other in the woods, send coordinates, etc. and there’s no technical reason why a digital FRS gateway (with meshing) couldn’t exist. Obviously the no encryption rule would need to remain so people don’t, for instance, use the whole allocation for more Wi-Fi channels.
  - emptybits 3y ago
    > People want to be able to text each other in the woods, send coordinates, etc. Small amounts of digital have been allowed in FRS for a while. But only one second, every 30 seconds. Creating a mesh within that constraint would be genius. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.587 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.587 But sending GPS coords and short data bursts standalone or with phone app is a thing. e.g. https://baofengtech.com/new-release-btech-gmrs-pro/ https://baofengtech.com/new-release-btech-gmrs-pro/
    - teeray 3y ago
      TIL! Thanks for the info.
- signaturefish 3y ago
  The thing is, there ARE chunks of spectrum dedicated to digital comms within the amateur radio bands. Here's a link to the VHF band plan we use here in the UK - obviously I can't speak for other countries: [https://rsgb.services/public/bandplans/19/ https://rsgb.services/public/bandplans/19/ ]. It's _littered_ with SSTV, beacon and digital mode allocations (and for clarity, that's a good thing). The digital mode allocations are full of people chatting in text using FT-8 or JS8Call (more in HF than VHF, those, but the principle holds). On the next page, there's an entire 1MHz allocation dedicated to wideband digital data modes. If you're a licensee, there's plenty of innovation and digital experimentation space available. Sure, a chunk of the traditionalist ham community aren't excited about it, but there's plenty of us who are. And, as ever, you don't need a license to receive...
  - DropInIn 3y ago
    I'm in Canada.... Telecoms own all spectrum (hyperbolic but not by far with how beholden govs are to corps like Telus and Bell)... Kinds sucks being the birthplace of telecoms...
- tarxvf 3y ago
  There are many more young hams and much more experimentation and digital interests than many realize. They just aren't ARRL members, don't go to club meetings, etc. They are active on discord. But there's plenty of new blood and hacker-types - they just don't do the contests and nets and other 'classic' ham radio stuff. The curmudgeons are a minority, but a very vocal one.
- thereddaikon 3y ago
  Most of the RF hacking anymore is being done in ISM band with LORA and the like. The HAM industry is almost entirely catering towards boomers on expensive HF sets chewing the fat. I got my tech license a few years back and the free issue of the ARRL magazine I was sent had two retirees on the cover talking into expensive mics, seated in their lavish radio shacks. Yeah this hobby is not for hackers.
- DropInIn 3y ago
  I've been interested in Hamming it up for a while but between frequent moving (making it unreasonable to expect to have enough/keep enough gear) and more importantly, the culture of the remaining Hams themselves I haven't had the opportunity nor will to actually do it. I'm pretty sure that those few who might get into really do get pushed away by the people who still do it...

In my opinion this is: 1) extremely likely to happen and 2) extremely avoidable. Right now there's no new blood replacing existing hams. The type of person who is into RF is also likely to be tech savvy these days. There are cool things you can do in ham with computers (ax.25, psk) but I've seen a lot of "that's boring come learn code to talk to people on field day" push back in most clubs. It is very sad. I have a feeling a new wave of hackers would flood radio if the community pushed for some spectrum to be community dedicated to digital comms. Outreach would be much easier. I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio.

Mountain_Skies 3y ago
Unfortunately, that's true at quite a few clubs, which are quickly shrinking in size. It probably wouldn't be difficult to stage a coup by having a dozen younger enthusiasts join and vote out the current membership, but it would be cleaner just to start up a separate club dedicated to digital modes. Younger potential members are more likely to congregate on a platform like Discord than join a local meatspace group so it's kind of moot.
- RF_Enthusiast 3y ago
  My only experience with an amateur radio club: I studied to take my Technician Class exam, when I finished and passed, I found out I could take my General Class exam right then if I wished. When I took that second exam and failed, the club members looked absolutely delighted. I don't look like them, and their smiles felt like them saying "we knew the freak would fail". It felt incredibly alienating.
  - threeio 3y ago
    Thats a real shame... I've rightfully ignored all of the people who encouraged youth to join the hobby then shunned them for talking about topics that they weren't interested in or experimenting with different modes that they don't like... Ham radio has plenty of fantastic people in it, and like any other large group that tends to have its share of gatekeepers who believe we all should be able to copy morse at 45wpm in our heads. Shoot for the general again and use one of the online testing groups, simple and no judgement.
    - MandieD 3y ago
      HamStudy.org got me through the Technician and General, Anki-style. The website was free, the app was $4 (one-time purchase, includes all three levels, plus a few non-US exams). The volunteers proctoring all three of my online exams were anywhere from polite to actively cheering me on (before the exam), and all congratulated me when I passed.
nvy 3y ago
At least where I live, the vast majority of hams you encounter both in person and on the airwaves are grumpy aging boomers who are actively hostile to new people. Goodbye Amateur Radio, you won't be missed.
- Brusco_RF 3y ago
  Can't wait for you to get older and start shaking your fist at the youngins who hate you for no discernable reason.
- dylan604 3y ago
  One day, your area will suffer a major disaster like earthquake, hurricane, etc that will knock out all of the cell towers and possibly even home internet access as well. We'll see how much you miss the HAMs then
  - nvy 3y ago
    Yep, that's the fetish these guys have. Old grouchy misanthrope in a Tilley hat becomes local hero during an earthquake.
    - dylan604 3y ago
      and you sound exactly like the type of person that will be the first one crying to everyone that their wifi isn't working and they're missing some ridiculous TikTok time waste instead of helping out with the situation.
      - mlyle 3y ago
        As a long time radio amateur, extra class, licensed since 1995: I don't really like the attitude. There's legitimate concerns about the longevity of the hobby. The average ARRL member is 68 years old. There's also a bigger and bigger disconnect between older operators and (the few) younger operators. Most of the hobby is not prepared to help with emcomm. And I think you (and a lot of people) overstate how helpful amateur emcomm is. In the past couple decades, local officials have gotten pretty good systems for getting high priority traffic out of the local area (which is what HF was previously for). Amateur volunteers relaying things in the local area are helpful in keeping disaster logistics running smoothly. Radio skills are not a big part of it, for the most part. I'm a teacher and passionate about radio. I don't know how to get my students into radio and make it into a good experience for them. They're way too likely to face hostility, racist political rants, etc. So I haven't pushed on it.
dylan604 3y ago
Of course it's boring to people that have had smart devices since the day they were born. These people can talk to anyone any where on the planet at any time of the day. HAM allowed people to talk to others across the horizon since pre-WW times. That's like saying playing with 2 tin cans and a string is boring. Duh! >I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio. Digital ruined a lot of things. Analog is/was just so much more open and ripe for hacking. Part of the advantage of digital was this security. However, going digital allowed us to do so much more, so it's a migration that could not be stopped. The only time HAMs are paid any attention are in times of disaster. Nobody will notice the loss of HAMs until the next major disaster near them, and then everyone will look around and ask "what happened to all the HAM guys?"
- ke88y 3y ago
  > The only time HAMs are paid any attention are in times of disaster. Nobody will notice the loss of HAMs until the next major disaster near them, and then everyone will look around and ask "what happened to all the HAM guys?" It's true that the HAM clubs tend to put a cultural emphasis on emergency communications. But the primary value add is the community with its various memoranda and training/standardized way of handling emergency communications. The radio skill-set and equipment is more of a red herring, tbh. Even being tuned into the amateur radio community and living through several regional natural disasters that knocked out cell phone coverage, I've never actually seen HAM radio operators turn out to be useful in emergencies. I'm glad for the robustness provided by the HAM community, and I think allocating spectrum is a small price to pay for a set of volunteers who serve as yet another layer of "backup infrastructure". It's valuable to have that robustness. But tbh in an actual emergency or natural disaster I'd MUCH rather have my inReach mini than my hand-held. The HAM emergency communications narrative is vastly over-stated (and, honestly, self-important in a way that's off-putting to pretty much all non-HAMs).
- 9659 3y ago
  Ham radio is an avenue to get kids interested in electronics. The spectrum is worth it for that alone.
Brusco_RF 3y ago
> I've actually seen hams go on a >20 minute rant about how digital is ruining ham radio. Only 20 minutes? That's short for an RF guy rant! I used to work with ~20 mmWave guys. All older dudes, and MAN could they talk. There was one guy who's last name was "Park." We called it "getting Parked" when he would park his ass at your desk and prevent you from getting any work done for 1-2 hours at a time
kawfey 3y ago
https://youthontheair.org https://youthontheair.org i'm doing my part!
bityard 3y ago
"Those youngsters are ruining ham radio for us!" "Those boomers are ruining ham radio for us!" It's the ciiiiiircle of life...
- Mountain_Skies 3y ago
  The gap between analog and digital modes is big enough that maybe it doesn't make sense for them both to be in the same club. The FCC relies on the clubs for volunteer labor to conduct testing and monitoring rule adherence, both of which the older guys seem to do very well but perhaps licensing should have a base component for understanding the general FCC rules and basic radio theory and then have separate analog and digital endorsements.
  - jimktrains2 3y ago
    > The gap between analog and digital modes is big enough that maybe it doesn't make sense for them both to be in the same club. This makes absolutely no sense. There's a whole base of physics, experince, antenna design, &c that are shared between analog and digital modes. Truthfully much more is shared than is different -- after all, in the end, digital modes are just another analog mode transmission.
    - Mountain_Skies 3y ago
      And yet here we are, with the analog gatekeepers happily leading the hobby into oblivion.
  - MandieD 3y ago
    See the amateur radio licensing system as a graduated driver’s license where the questions were put together by classic car guys who miss those giant pre-1973 oil embargo American muscle car engines, but is a necessity for running your electric-powered car with sensors and self-driving capabilities you and your tech community are developing out on public roads at speeds high enough to get anywhere, and with enough real traffic to get good feedback. The best way to influence the content of that exam? Join one of the more progressive VECs (Volunteer Exam Coordinators) as a volunteer examiner. Minimum license level for this is General, but really, Amateur Extra, so you can give all three exams. Which VECs are progressive? Start with the ones that host online exam sessions, and seem enthusiastic about it. The money is trivial ($15 per exam given, and they have to have three examiners watching one test taker), so they’re in it for the love (and possibly community clout). VECs, in turn, help the FCC set the question pools for the exams, and those are updated a little bit every four years. They’ve started adding a few questions about digital modes. I personally think they should have more content about safety and regulations, because that’s what really matters for playing nicely with others on the little bit of spectrum we have.
EvanAnderson 3y ago
I really want to be interested in amateur radio but it doesn’t seem useful for anything. Since encrypted traffic is forbidden it seems useless for any personal project where I care about confidentiality or integrity. That mostly seems to relegate it to “talk to other people who are far away” and I can use the Internet to do that already.
- stolenmerch 3y ago
  Confidentiality isn't really part of ham radio. You must be licensed and maintain a semi-public call sign. Part of the fun is learning the physics and engineering of RF and antennas. Makings contacts thousands of miles away usually takes skill and know-how beyond just jumping online and talking with random people. There are a lot of factors such as understanding wave propagation in relation to the earth and ionosphere. It's satisfying to, say, take your little 5W HF radio and mobile antenna into a remote area and make contacts with other operators. There are also lots of other cool aspects such as having privileges to create higher-power mesh networks, etc. It's a technical hobby and not for everyone, but rewarding.
  - livueta 3y ago
    You're accurately describing the status quo, but I think the parent's point is that a lot more people, me included, would be interested in defending these frequency allocations as a public good if they were more practically usable, and practically usable directly implies encryption. It's an awful lot of primo bandwidth for a bit of hobbyist DXing. I think the problem comes down to the HAM rules having been formulated pre-Internet, where the distinction between amateur and commercial activity was a lot more obvious: noncommercial ~= useless, commercial ~= useful. The advent of the Internet demonstrated the existence of a whole new category: noncommercial ~= useful. Today we've got all kinds of noncommercial but highly useful RF applications, e.g. Meshtastic, that are stuck in the relatively limited ISM bands (yes, I'm aware of HAM mode, but recall usefulness → encryption). Just using the Internet isn't a replacement for these projects, as they're intended to be useful offgrid or during times of centralized Internet disruption. IMO it's a crying shame that stuff like this, the bleeding edge of non-commercial usefulness in RF, is lower priority than ragchewing. Besides, it's not as if all the technical aspects go away under looser rules: propagation behavior etc etc are just as important, if not moreso, than they ever were. This doesn't mean just hand it over to the corps; there's a third way. Some chunks of current HAM spectrum should be converted to ISM. That doesn't mean a total free-for-all; duty cycle and EIRP limits apply and can be scaled appropriately to the frequency's propagation characteristics. The degree of freedom in usage in ISM bands drives innovation in protocol design to make better use of available bandwidth, as has happened with 802.11, so congestion/commercial use is actually a good thing.
MandieD 3y ago
Pay attention to some of the projects being funded by the ARDC - Amateur Radio Digital Communications. They’re on the lookout for people, especially younger people like school kids and college amateur radio clubs, doing new and interesting things with RF, which is really what the amateur bands were intended for. https://ardc.net https://ardc.net
teeray 3y ago
Legacy two-way radio is plagued by analog. FRS would be vastly more useful to the average person if some digital comms were permitted. People want to be able to text each other in the woods, send coordinates, etc. and there’s no technical reason why a digital FRS gateway (with meshing) couldn’t exist. Obviously the no encryption rule would need to remain so people don’t, for instance, use the whole allocation for more Wi-Fi channels.
- emptybits 3y ago
  > People want to be able to text each other in the woods, send coordinates, etc. Small amounts of digital have been allowed in FRS for a while. But only one second, every 30 seconds. Creating a mesh within that constraint would be genius. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.587 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/95.587 But sending GPS coords and short data bursts standalone or with phone app is a thing. e.g. https://baofengtech.com/new-release-btech-gmrs-pro/ https://baofengtech.com/new-release-btech-gmrs-pro/
  - teeray 3y ago
    TIL! Thanks for the info.
signaturefish 3y ago
The thing is, there ARE chunks of spectrum dedicated to digital comms within the amateur radio bands. Here's a link to the VHF band plan we use here in the UK - obviously I can't speak for other countries: [https://rsgb.services/public/bandplans/19/ https://rsgb.services/public/bandplans/19/ ]. It's _littered_ with SSTV, beacon and digital mode allocations (and for clarity, that's a good thing). The digital mode allocations are full of people chatting in text using FT-8 or JS8Call (more in HF than VHF, those, but the principle holds). On the next page, there's an entire 1MHz allocation dedicated to wideband digital data modes. If you're a licensee, there's plenty of innovation and digital experimentation space available. Sure, a chunk of the traditionalist ham community aren't excited about it, but there's plenty of us who are. And, as ever, you don't need a license to receive...
- DropInIn 3y ago
  I'm in Canada.... Telecoms own all spectrum (hyperbolic but not by far with how beholden govs are to corps like Telus and Bell)... Kinds sucks being the birthplace of telecoms...
tarxvf 3y ago
There are many more young hams and much more experimentation and digital interests than many realize. They just aren't ARRL members, don't go to club meetings, etc. They are active on discord. But there's plenty of new blood and hacker-types - they just don't do the contests and nets and other 'classic' ham radio stuff. The curmudgeons are a minority, but a very vocal one.
thereddaikon 3y ago
Most of the RF hacking anymore is being done in ISM band with LORA and the like. The HAM industry is almost entirely catering towards boomers on expensive HF sets chewing the fat. I got my tech license a few years back and the free issue of the ARRL magazine I was sent had two retirees on the cover talking into expensive mics, seated in their lavish radio shacks. Yeah this hobby is not for hackers.
DropInIn 3y ago
I've been interested in Hamming it up for a while but between frequent moving (making it unreasonable to expect to have enough/keep enough gear) and more importantly, the culture of the remaining Hams themselves I haven't had the opportunity nor will to actually do it. I'm pretty sure that those few who might get into really do get pushed away by the people who still do it...