Re: [44net] On The Air

And what is a goal then? I am ham since 1985. Other than enjoying doing ham stuff, most of my ham activities were not for myself, but for spreading the word, involving people, teaching them, letting them know and use ham technologies. Back then we had prestige. We could do things ordinary people could not do, and we got admiration for that. Today, we lost that prestige. The most distinguishable knowledge we have (or better said we had) is Morse Code which is obsolete today. Packet radio is technology mobile GRPS networks are based on. But we are still using Packet Radio. It is outdated for how long, 10 - 15 years? Packet Radio did not change a lot since time I used it as young boy. Of course it is not interesting any more. Creating AMPR is not some achievement nowadays. Again, it is stuck with specific customized and outdated protocols. Other than that, it would be quite straight forward to spread it. The best hams can do today is HSMM which except fancy acronym is nothing fancy - ordinary WiFi limited to ham frequencies and released of power limitations of free band. Modern hams toy is APRS. And what is it? Location (and messaging) service reserved just for hams, with limited functionality and expensive equipment needed. Today ordinary people can get tracking device for 30-40 USD, and get very fancy free or almost free services using that. And that is if they need tracker for some specific purpose like tracking children or pets or elders with Alzheimer. Usually they do not have to buy anything as almost every modern mobile phone can do the job for no additional price. So, we lost prestige. Did we lost soul too? I grow up in environment where being ham was not being selfish and looking for personal goals. I was always thought and I always thought others that being ham is getting and sharing. So doing ham activities just for myself is not an option for me. And I hope that it is still the main goal in overall ham community. So, as it is hard to get new prestige (that can be achieved by inventing something new that would be solely hams privilege), and thus motivate others to join, we have other option: to improve what we got, and make it accessible and desirable for other so that would be motivation for them to join. It others do not join then we get back to the question at the beginning of the story - what's the point? Pedja, YT9TP _________________________________________ 44Net mailing list 44Net(a)hamradio.ucsd.edu http://hamradio.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/44net http://www.ampr.org/donate.html