5 ms·

I'm a ham and I've used some of their products over the years. It is indeed a sad day. I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. It is a niche but

by rmason 3y ago

I'm a ham and I've used some of their products over the years. It is indeed a sad day. I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. It is a niche but a handful of small companies (and divisions of large ones) do quite well servicing the amateur radio market.

cogman10 3y ago
> I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. I mean... how big is the market for ham radios? I've not really met an enthusiast that wasn't at least 10 years older than I am.
- topspin 3y ago
  One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property, but some of the more compelling parts of ham radio are hard to reach.
  - germinator 3y ago
    Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the kids were supposed to follow in the footsteps of the old-timers and get excited about slow-scan TV, RTTY, and collecting QSL postcards. Frankly, I don't know of any other hobby with a comparable amount of gatekeeping. It sucks because the increasingly idle spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use.
    - hallway_monitor 3y ago
      I agree. Got into it during COVID - it was really fun learning about radios, RF, building antennas and stuff. But when it actually came to using it....there's not much to do unless you really get a kick out of making contact with random people who are far away and getting points for that to win contests. It is nice to know that I can communicate thousands of miles with no infrastructure but currently I don't have a need for that.
    - mikewarot 3y ago
      >spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use Which is a tax on anyone who ends up using it. Selling the airwaves was a huge mistake.
    - jjav 3y ago
      > Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. I know people feel that way but IMO ham radio is still magical because you can communicate across continents without any dependency on anything or anyone else. Sure the internet is faster and more convenient, but for that IP packet to reach its destination it depends on a cast of thousands of components across dozens of providers to all be working correctly. With ham radio, you just need the radio and a generator and the laws of physics to communicate across the globe. That's pretty magical!
      - markemer 3y ago
        Maybe it’s just because I’m an EE, but I really got into the data modes too. Like did you know how stupid simple old school pagers are to create signals for? You have to make some slight modifications get them into the Ham Bands (or buy a new one, apparently a thing!) but after that it’s just 512 baud FSK.
        MobiusHorizons 3y ago
        Fascinating! Is there overlap of some equipment with a ham band or do you have to modify the frequency of the equipment? What band do you use? Now I want to try this.
  - sidewndr46 3y ago
    This continued piece of disinformation is incredibly destructive to the hobby. You don't need a tower or a huge piece of property to get involved with ham radio. I do most of my operation portable, sometimes operating out of a backpack and have plenty of fun with it. If you want to put up an antenna as a renter you can easily do so on a small freestanding tripod.
    - bnpxft 3y ago
      I second this. You can get on HF with very little space. If you have 16ft of space, you can easily put up a temporary 10 meter dipole. I have an HOA, so every time want to get on HF at home I put up the 10m dipole. I stick three 7ft wooden stakes in the ground, tie the dipole to them with paracord, and talk to people all over the world. That dipole is just 2 pieces of 8 foot wire soldered to a SO-329 connector. It probably cost me $10 at most. You can get a low powered portable HF digital rig for less than $100. With less than 20W and a homebrewed antenna you could be making contacts all over the world. If you need more power, you can get a mobile 100W HF rig <https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/mobile-transceivers https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/mobile-transc...> for a little more than an XBOX. A 100W HF base station for the cost of a mid-range laptop <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015268 https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015268> <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065 https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065> Admittedly, I'm currently making contacts all over the world right now on Hacker News. As children of the Internet, radio, at first, seems like a silly, antique hobby when the Internet has connected us together. Maybe it is just me, but there's something really fun and geeky about radio. I've been a maker for decades and I've grown a bit bored of making LED blink. HAM radio has given me a practical reason to get the solder iron out again. I really love building the crappiest equipment out of scraps and see if it'll work. Parks on the Air is another really fun aspect of the hobby. Almost every weekend since I got my license, I go out to a nearby state or national park. I pack up my FT-991a base station in a cheap harbor freight hard case. I bring a battery, some coax, an EFHW antenna I built. I throw in antenna in a tree and sit in the park and play radio. I find it quite relaxing to get outside and see who I can talk to. KB9VBR has a nice video what a POTA activation is like. If you're an outdoorsy type or want to be one, POTA is a fun excuse to get outside. https://youtu.be/LL6R4U9ualI?si=KH4ZRssscpd7ooyb https://youtu.be/LL6R4U9ualI?si=KH4ZRssscpd7ooyb
  - throw0101d 3y ago
    > HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. An "apartment antenna" that can be attached to balcony railing: * https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1622 https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1622 Portable antenna: * https://www.buddipole.com/buddipole.html https://www.buddipole.com/buddipole.html
  - blahyawnblah 3y ago
    Pretty sure federal law says HOAs can't do anything to prevent HAM radio antenna installations
    - topspin 3y ago
      This is not the case. Federal laws preclude HOA bylaws, municipal and state law from blocking antennas for satellite TV and radio service and antennas for terrestrial fixed internet service. It says nothing about antennas for amateur radio service. As such, almost all HOAs ban antennas for amateur, CB or any other purpose not protected by federal law. The ARRL tried for years to obtain the same protected status for amateur radio antennas and failed. They've since ceased lobbying for this as it is costly. Occasionally one legislator or another tries to get the language passed and it is always shot down.

by rmason 3y ago

cogman10 3y ago

> I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. I mean... how big is the market for ham radios? I've not really met an enthusiast that wasn't at least 10 years older than I am.

topspin 3y ago
One thing to remember about ham radio is that there is a bit of natural bias in the demographic: a lot of the stuff involved requires a certain minimum amount of things that older people tend to have. Property being one of the keys. HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. Some of the equipment is pricey as well. You can do a lot at low cost and without property, but some of the more compelling parts of ham radio are hard to reach.
- germinator 3y ago
  Eh. It might be a part of it, but the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the kids were supposed to follow in the footsteps of the old-timers and get excited about slow-scan TV, RTTY, and collecting QSL postcards. Frankly, I don't know of any other hobby with a comparable amount of gatekeeping. It sucks because the increasingly idle spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use.
  - hallway_monitor 3y ago
    I agree. Got into it during COVID - it was really fun learning about radios, RF, building antennas and stuff. But when it actually came to using it....there's not much to do unless you really get a kick out of making contact with random people who are far away and getting points for that to win contests. It is nice to know that I can communicate thousands of miles with no infrastructure but currently I don't have a need for that.
  - mikewarot 3y ago
    >spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use Which is a tax on anyone who ends up using it. Selling the airwaves was a huge mistake.
  - jjav 3y ago
    > Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical. I know people feel that way but IMO ham radio is still magical because you can communicate across continents without any dependency on anything or anyone else. Sure the internet is faster and more convenient, but for that IP packet to reach its destination it depends on a cast of thousands of components across dozens of providers to all be working correctly. With ham radio, you just need the radio and a generator and the laws of physics to communicate across the globe. That's pretty magical!
    - markemer 3y ago
      Maybe it’s just because I’m an EE, but I really got into the data modes too. Like did you know how stupid simple old school pagers are to create signals for? You have to make some slight modifications get them into the Ham Bands (or buy a new one, apparently a thing!) but after that it’s just 512 baud FSK.
      - MobiusHorizons 3y ago
        Fascinating! Is there overlap of some equipment with a ham band or do you have to modify the frequency of the equipment? What band do you use? Now I want to try this.
- sidewndr46 3y ago
  This continued piece of disinformation is incredibly destructive to the hobby. You don't need a tower or a huge piece of property to get involved with ham radio. I do most of my operation portable, sometimes operating out of a backpack and have plenty of fun with it. If you want to put up an antenna as a renter you can easily do so on a small freestanding tripod.
  - bnpxft 3y ago
    I second this. You can get on HF with very little space. If you have 16ft of space, you can easily put up a temporary 10 meter dipole. I have an HOA, so every time want to get on HF at home I put up the 10m dipole. I stick three 7ft wooden stakes in the ground, tie the dipole to them with paracord, and talk to people all over the world. That dipole is just 2 pieces of 8 foot wire soldered to a SO-329 connector. It probably cost me $10 at most. You can get a low powered portable HF digital rig for less than $100. With less than 20W and a homebrewed antenna you could be making contacts all over the world. If you need more power, you can get a mobile 100W HF rig <https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/mobile-transceivers https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/mobile-transc...> for a little more than an XBOX. A 100W HF base station for the cost of a mid-range laptop <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015268 https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015268> <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065 https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065> Admittedly, I'm currently making contacts all over the world right now on Hacker News. As children of the Internet, radio, at first, seems like a silly, antique hobby when the Internet has connected us together. Maybe it is just me, but there's something really fun and geeky about radio. I've been a maker for decades and I've grown a bit bored of making LED blink. HAM radio has given me a practical reason to get the solder iron out again. I really love building the crappiest equipment out of scraps and see if it'll work. Parks on the Air is another really fun aspect of the hobby. Almost every weekend since I got my license, I go out to a nearby state or national park. I pack up my FT-991a base station in a cheap harbor freight hard case. I bring a battery, some coax, an EFHW antenna I built. I throw in antenna in a tree and sit in the park and play radio. I find it quite relaxing to get outside and see who I can talk to. KB9VBR has a nice video what a POTA activation is like. If you're an outdoorsy type or want to be one, POTA is a fun excuse to get outside. https://youtu.be/LL6R4U9ualI?si=KH4ZRssscpd7ooyb https://youtu.be/LL6R4U9ualI?si=KH4ZRssscpd7ooyb
- throw0101d 3y ago
  > HF antennas, towers, etc. are essentially outlawed by HOAs and entirely infeasible for renters. An "apartment antenna" that can be attached to balcony railing: * https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1622 https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1622 Portable antenna: * https://www.buddipole.com/buddipole.html https://www.buddipole.com/buddipole.html
- blahyawnblah 3y ago
  Pretty sure federal law says HOAs can't do anything to prevent HAM radio antenna installations
  - topspin 3y ago
    This is not the case. Federal laws preclude HOA bylaws, municipal and state law from blocking antennas for satellite TV and radio service and antennas for terrestrial fixed internet service. It says nothing about antennas for amateur radio service. As such, almost all HOAs ban antennas for amateur, CB or any other purpose not protected by federal law. The ARRL tried for years to obtain the same protected status for amateur radio antennas and failed. They've since ceased lobbying for this as it is costly. Occasionally one legislator or another tries to get the language passed and it is always shot down.