09-12-2012, 06:37 PM
Yet more ramblings from my keyboard:
Where I think that amateur radio has lost its way (assuming that one thinks that it has), is that the entrance exam has tended to be seen as an end point - not a starting point.
Beyond meeting the exam requirements - RAE or whatever, which has always been quite elementary, there has never been - nor is there today - any advanced tuition beyond that point. When I passed the old ‘essay style’ RAE and 12WPM Morse back in 1974, which (unlike today) involved no practical work, and no on-air assessment, even back then, passing the RAE was seen as the be all and end all - 'mission accomplished'. An ethos of ‘lifelong learning’ has not evolved in the hobby, and developing the skill level has not really been the bedrock of national and local radio societies and other amateurs.
Few members of any local clubs I attended from the mid 1970s until the mid 1990s in Grimsby, Mansfield, Sheffield or Hull had any interest or involvement in construction and experimentation. After the initial pleasure at having passed the exam and Morse test way back in 1974, I felt quite deflated that any further learning had to be from books – not from formal tuition, or from contact with like-minded more experienced amateurs.
I would contrast that with my other hobby of woodturning – a genuine 'practical hobby', with no exam but countless DVDs, 1-1 tuition, continuous up-skilling, and a level of skill attained by amateur woodturners over time that takes my breath away, whereas amateur radio has metamorphosed into an ‘Out of the box, plug ‘n play’ consumer electronics hobby.
Many amateurs who were practical and technically minded have long since departed to the ‘shack in the sky’. Before WW2, amateur radio was largely a rich mans' hobby pursued be a small band of mostly well-heeled, well-educated people. During the war, hundreds of thousands of service personnel gained expertise as wireless and radar mechanics and operators, and the war years acted as a spur to technological developments. After the war, many such people - with their new-found expertise - became radio amateurs, and out of necessity built their own equipment, often from ex WD surplus. In the 1950s until perhaps the late 1960s, as component firms moved into peacetime production, many catered for the amateur constructors market.
However, by the 1970s, many of those amateurs had grown old, lost interest, become inactive or died. At the same time, Japanese manufacturers began to market equipment that surpassed the expertise of newcomers to the hobby and at prices that made little economic sense for amateurs to attempt to build their own. Perhaps the last example of this in the UK was the ‘G2DAF’ transmitter, receiver and linear amplifier designed by the late Dick Thornley in the late 1960s. These three items of equipment were landmarks of UK amateur radio during the late 60s and early 70s. Many hundreds of G2DAF rigs were built the world over as they presented a relatively cheap way of getting on the then new mode, (new to amateur radio that is), of single sideband (SSB), with the added attraction of having built the equipment oneself. I don’t want to infer that radio amateurs have completely abandoned building equipment, but perhaps no more than 5% do so.
Here’s an example of G2DAF equipment built by an Australian amateur:
http://www.members.westnet.com.au/page3/...lifier.htm
For those that wish to build from kits, there are many, both in the UK and elsewhere, perhaps the best example are those signed and marketed by Elecraft in America, which not only look professional, but surpass the performance attained by many high spec Japanese transceivers:
http://www.elecraft.com/
The original constructional and experimental hobby resides in the QRP (low power) community. That the hobby taken this direction because complex high performance transceivers are now so cheap and beyond the scope of amateurs to construct in terms of time, workshop facilities and expertise. It has nothing at all to do with the terms of the licence, or assertions that the hobby has been dumbed down by terms of the licence, though few amateurs including those who make such assertions actually understand the licence terms, or even posses the test equipment or knowledge to comply with the terms. EG:
Quote:
7 Equipment:
7(1) The Licensee shall ensure that:
(a) the emitted frequency of the apparatus comprised in the Radio Equipment is as stable and as free from Unwanted Emissions as the state of technical development for amateur radio apparatus reasonably permits; and
(b) whatever class of emission is in use, the bandwidth occupied by the emission is such that not more than 1% of the mean power of the transmission falls outside the nominal modulated carrier bandwidth.
7(3) Notwithstanding any other terms of this Licence, the Licensee shall ensure that the Radio Equipment is designed, constructed, maintained and used so that its use does not cause any Undue Interference to any wireless telegraphy.
7(4) If any Undue Interference to wireless telegraphy is caused by the radiation of Unwanted Emissions from the Radio Equipment, then the Licensee shall suppress the Unwanted Emissions to the degree satisfactory to Ofcom.
7(5) The Licensee shall conduct tests from time to time to ensure that the requirements set out in this Clause 7 are met.
End quote.
How many amateurs comply with that I wonder?
I'd wager that they don't - they rely on the factory in Japan having designed and built their shop-bought equipment properly.
But despite what many may consider to be a jaundiced view on my part, I'm not deriding the hobby - simply saying how it's changed out of all recognition from a once technical experimental and practical hobby into what it is today. Some amateurs say ‘internet has killed off amateur radio’. I’d say that the reverse is so – it’s helped breath life into it, just as it has in vintage radio restoration, by helping people to share interests and expertise.
Regardless of what I've written, many thousands of people do still enjoy the hobby, even if it has metamorphosed into ‘posh CB’, and jolly good luck to them. And the current licence structure, which I support, (but fiercely opposed at the time by RSGB), has at least removed needless burdensome red tape from standing in the way of new entrants. Ofcom had a statutory duty to to revise the licence as Ofcom were in danger of breaking the law had they not amended the terms.
To use Ofcom's words (July 4 2006):
"to ensure that we are consistent with current legal and regulatory requirements".
Quite so.
Not ranting - just rambling and dribbling as usual.
Where I think that amateur radio has lost its way (assuming that one thinks that it has), is that the entrance exam has tended to be seen as an end point - not a starting point.
Beyond meeting the exam requirements - RAE or whatever, which has always been quite elementary, there has never been - nor is there today - any advanced tuition beyond that point. When I passed the old ‘essay style’ RAE and 12WPM Morse back in 1974, which (unlike today) involved no practical work, and no on-air assessment, even back then, passing the RAE was seen as the be all and end all - 'mission accomplished'. An ethos of ‘lifelong learning’ has not evolved in the hobby, and developing the skill level has not really been the bedrock of national and local radio societies and other amateurs.
Few members of any local clubs I attended from the mid 1970s until the mid 1990s in Grimsby, Mansfield, Sheffield or Hull had any interest or involvement in construction and experimentation. After the initial pleasure at having passed the exam and Morse test way back in 1974, I felt quite deflated that any further learning had to be from books – not from formal tuition, or from contact with like-minded more experienced amateurs.
I would contrast that with my other hobby of woodturning – a genuine 'practical hobby', with no exam but countless DVDs, 1-1 tuition, continuous up-skilling, and a level of skill attained by amateur woodturners over time that takes my breath away, whereas amateur radio has metamorphosed into an ‘Out of the box, plug ‘n play’ consumer electronics hobby.
Many amateurs who were practical and technically minded have long since departed to the ‘shack in the sky’. Before WW2, amateur radio was largely a rich mans' hobby pursued be a small band of mostly well-heeled, well-educated people. During the war, hundreds of thousands of service personnel gained expertise as wireless and radar mechanics and operators, and the war years acted as a spur to technological developments. After the war, many such people - with their new-found expertise - became radio amateurs, and out of necessity built their own equipment, often from ex WD surplus. In the 1950s until perhaps the late 1960s, as component firms moved into peacetime production, many catered for the amateur constructors market.
However, by the 1970s, many of those amateurs had grown old, lost interest, become inactive or died. At the same time, Japanese manufacturers began to market equipment that surpassed the expertise of newcomers to the hobby and at prices that made little economic sense for amateurs to attempt to build their own. Perhaps the last example of this in the UK was the ‘G2DAF’ transmitter, receiver and linear amplifier designed by the late Dick Thornley in the late 1960s. These three items of equipment were landmarks of UK amateur radio during the late 60s and early 70s. Many hundreds of G2DAF rigs were built the world over as they presented a relatively cheap way of getting on the then new mode, (new to amateur radio that is), of single sideband (SSB), with the added attraction of having built the equipment oneself. I don’t want to infer that radio amateurs have completely abandoned building equipment, but perhaps no more than 5% do so.
Here’s an example of G2DAF equipment built by an Australian amateur:
http://www.members.westnet.com.au/page3/...lifier.htm
For those that wish to build from kits, there are many, both in the UK and elsewhere, perhaps the best example are those signed and marketed by Elecraft in America, which not only look professional, but surpass the performance attained by many high spec Japanese transceivers:
http://www.elecraft.com/
The original constructional and experimental hobby resides in the QRP (low power) community. That the hobby taken this direction because complex high performance transceivers are now so cheap and beyond the scope of amateurs to construct in terms of time, workshop facilities and expertise. It has nothing at all to do with the terms of the licence, or assertions that the hobby has been dumbed down by terms of the licence, though few amateurs including those who make such assertions actually understand the licence terms, or even posses the test equipment or knowledge to comply with the terms. EG:
Quote:
7 Equipment:
7(1) The Licensee shall ensure that:
(a) the emitted frequency of the apparatus comprised in the Radio Equipment is as stable and as free from Unwanted Emissions as the state of technical development for amateur radio apparatus reasonably permits; and
(b) whatever class of emission is in use, the bandwidth occupied by the emission is such that not more than 1% of the mean power of the transmission falls outside the nominal modulated carrier bandwidth.
7(3) Notwithstanding any other terms of this Licence, the Licensee shall ensure that the Radio Equipment is designed, constructed, maintained and used so that its use does not cause any Undue Interference to any wireless telegraphy.
7(4) If any Undue Interference to wireless telegraphy is caused by the radiation of Unwanted Emissions from the Radio Equipment, then the Licensee shall suppress the Unwanted Emissions to the degree satisfactory to Ofcom.
7(5) The Licensee shall conduct tests from time to time to ensure that the requirements set out in this Clause 7 are met.
End quote.
How many amateurs comply with that I wonder?
I'd wager that they don't - they rely on the factory in Japan having designed and built their shop-bought equipment properly.
But despite what many may consider to be a jaundiced view on my part, I'm not deriding the hobby - simply saying how it's changed out of all recognition from a once technical experimental and practical hobby into what it is today. Some amateurs say ‘internet has killed off amateur radio’. I’d say that the reverse is so – it’s helped breath life into it, just as it has in vintage radio restoration, by helping people to share interests and expertise.
Regardless of what I've written, many thousands of people do still enjoy the hobby, even if it has metamorphosed into ‘posh CB’, and jolly good luck to them. And the current licence structure, which I support, (but fiercely opposed at the time by RSGB), has at least removed needless burdensome red tape from standing in the way of new entrants. Ofcom had a statutory duty to to revise the licence as Ofcom were in danger of breaking the law had they not amended the terms.
To use Ofcom's words (July 4 2006):
"to ensure that we are consistent with current legal and regulatory requirements".
Quite so.
Not ranting - just rambling and dribbling as usual.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
)...
