> This is accepting defeat to the internet. I say that we should see more competition. I think here is the misunderstanding. There is no competition. Ham opera

> This is accepting defeat to the internet. I say that we should see more competition. I think here is the misunderstanding. There is no competition. Ham operators happily use the internet to communicate when appropriate and at the same time use the ham bands for playing with their radio equipment. I don't think many of them want to use their radios to do what they do with their smartphones and vice versa. It is like saying that gliders and airliners are in competition. Even if both are about aerodynamics, no glider pilot is mad because using a glider is inconvenient for travelling overseas, no one thinks gliders have "lost" to airliners because of the insistance on not using engines (motorgliders exist but they are still inadequate for practical travel). Glider pilots take the plane like everyone else when going on vacation. It doesn't mean gliders are useless, a few of them have practical applications, and they make excellent training for "useful" plane pilots, in fact most of the best airline pilots have flown gliders, and some still do. Same idea with ham radio. Mostly but not completely impractical, and many of the people who now work with "useful" radios like the one that's in your phone giving you internet access started as amateurs.