26 Jul
2013
26 Jul
'13
5:56 a.m.
On 25.7.2013 23:29, PE1RDW wrote:
You are contradicting a litle, if they are close
enough for 2m/70cm then
they are close enough for mobile phone internet
Not quite. You cannot set cell phone tower where you want them, but with
ham radio nodes you can. In hilly areas like where I live it matters a lot.
, if it is a dx-pedition
or remote farm they won't be in vhf and uhf range in the first place and
500 euro investment and 50 euro monthly fee is low compared to the other
costs and even if it is just one time then can just rent it for 70 to
100 euro per month all in, that is only twice what you would pay for a
qualety adsl connection.
I guess you did not pay attention to what I said. To make it simple: we
live in different worlds. People here do not share the same system of
values like you do.
maybe we should start to ask if getting wide use of
AMPR is the goal we
are after,anything we can do on AMPR and packet we can do better on
internet, afterall we are discussing this on an internet mailinglist and
not on the packet network, I think one of the most active discusions on
packet network is on sysop@ww about the misrouting by other sysops, that
makes me conclude that only sysops are using the network just like only
gateways and lap sysops use the AMPR net.
This is not realy a bad thing, just a realisation that we do what we do
for ourselfs.
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Code which is obsolete today.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 It is outdated for how long, 10 - 15 years?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specific customized and outdated protocols.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