The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio
 

Could be grim :worried:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wi...e-of-ham-radio

jr

I was first licensed at the age of 16 as WN8NHV in 1972. I had a decent station at that time but made just one contact (very long story). I upgraded to Technician just before my Novice ticket (license) expired, but had to move in 1975 and start over again. Twenty-seven years later, here we go again, as I had to move yet a third time (again, long story and OT). Now I am 64 years old, live in an apartment, and am more or less stuck with operating 2 meter FM (I am a member of a local ham club which has a repeater, N8BC/R, 147.81-21). I had an Echolink setup for quite a while, but my computer broke down. The person who repaired it erased the hard drive, including my Echolink program (I haven't been able to reinstall that software yet for lack of a master password), so now I am, again, stuck on 2m indefinitely, using a 1.5-watt HT. I still have my HF rig (an Icom IC-725), but cannot use it due to lease restrictions (cannot erect a decent antenna for the radio), and I am in no position to move to a house by virtue of living on a fixed income.

Oh well, I guess I should be thankful I can still operate 2m on the local repeater, but to be perfectly honest, I miss my HF station and all the contacts I made when I had it (I came very close to working all 50 states at my former location, a suburb of Cleveland).

As far as ham radio's future goes, well, the fact is things have changed, drastically, since I started in the hobby 48 years ago, and will continue to change as time goes on. I will not say the hobby will eventually disappear (I honestly don't believe it will, with some 600,000 licensed amateurs in the US alone), but I will admit it is nothing like what it was when I started. This is the age of the Internet, and more young people are communicating using that than ever will on the radio again. I am reminded of this time and time again when I try to find someone to talk to on the local repeater. I can say over and over again that I am listening on the repeater, but I get very few (if any) replies, except on the 2-meter ragchew net my club has on Thursday nights. Another problem is that I do not know any amateurs in my town, despite knowing that one such amateur lives about a block away and will not have anything to do with me--why, I may never know, as I never said or did anything (that I know of, anyway) to cause him to ignore me on the air. I cannot attend the meetings of the radio club to which I belong and of which I have been a member since 1987 because I do not drive, and the local bus line does not operate late at night (the club's meetings often last until 10 PM or later).

I am not at my wits' end (yet) over this, but the issue does bother me, and I wish there were some way I could get to my club's meetings once in a while. No one in the club is willing to take me because, as one club member recently told me, my membership in the club does not allow for that. I believe this is very unfair, as I am sure there are club members older than myself who do not drive and have no other way of getting to the meetings.

I will not end my membership in the club because of this issue, but the fact remains I feel very left out because I have no way to get to the meetings. I don't know very many people here where I live (this is a village of about 3100 population) and feel I could get to know a few folks if I could only get to my club's meetings.


All of which sometimes makes me wonder why I am still "spinning my wheels" on 2m after years and decades of being able to make worldwide contacts on HF, before having to give up my HF station when I moved. The only reason I can come up with for staying with the hobby is that I went to far too much trouble and effort to get my license 48 years ago. If I could give up this apartment and move to a house, things would be different, I'm sure, but since I will be in this place probably most of the rest of my life, I am stuck on 2m and Echolink, the latter, again (!), if I can ever get the password for the application needed for access to the system.

73,

There is no current legislative threat to the spectrum reading the article, just a decline in the hobby and fears it will eventually make it easier for the FCC to mess with spectrum the way it has with TV.

I need to start getting active in the hobby. When I got licensed I had no money for a decent rig and having gotten interested in the hobby from listening to DX160m-10m on my Sony ICF-7600GR the propagation range and quality of traffic on 2m and up was dissapointing. I'm not interested in Morse so anything below 10m is not presently usable for me on a technician license (IIRC some digital modes can be worked there but I need to find time to do research and buy or build hardware before that happens). I probably should try to upgrade to general. Last week in an attempt to get active; I recaped my 10m and 6m tube SSB Heathkits, cut some dipoles and set up a shack in the loft of the family cabin...either my rigs need more work, I wasn't listening at the right time or those bands are fairly dead up there as I couldn't find a single station opperating on those bands...my 10m rig could work all bands from 10m down to 80m so I listened to the lower bands and found some SW and one ham conversation down there (but could only listen to those lower freq stations on my license).

KD9IVO

Jeff, you can make lots of contacts with an in house antenna with low power. A simple loops or dipole will do. You won't be a contest master but you can have some fun for sure. It doesn't sound like computers are your thing but some of the new digital modes work well on very low power.

E.M., you could have most digital modes working in a couple of hours. With a semi-modern rig it would be pretty easy. Do you have anything other than the Heathkits? At least around here it looks like it will be a while before licensing resumes. But you could get all prepped for the test.

Below 2m only the Heathkits. 2m and up I've got a ITC multi-2000 and a Midland 13-510 which are both ancient and of course a UV-5R...I haven't put much money into the this. I also rarely do SS repairs so I won't buy a cheap fixer upper SS rig as I know I'll never feel like fixing it. I prefer tube gear wherever possible as I know if it breaks I will bother to fix it eventually.

Been meaning to get a General license. I have a UV-5R that I use for FRS and to listen to 2M, but I want a tubed HF rig or maybe one of those Kenwood hybrids.

I have an Icom IC-T22AT handheld and also a Baofeng UV-5R-Plus HT (the model which superseded the original UV-5R) which at least keep me active on the local ham club's 2m repeater. I cannot presently use the UV-5R+ as I cannot seem to be able to set the repeater offset for the local repeater (147.81-21); that is, I know the offset is +600, but the manual is not clear at all as to how to set it. The UV-5R+ instruction manual is very poorly written, probably par for the course since that HT is made in China.

BTW, I am still trying, with no luck yet, to set the password which would allow me to use my Echolink software with the local repeater. This password is the only thing standing between me and a fully operational Echolink system, as I had for quite a while until the computer broke down last month; the person who repaired it erased everything on my hard drive including, yup, you guessed it, the Echolink software I had installed months earlier. I would much rather use that with my computer than my Icom HT, as the latter's audio output is extremely low unless I use an external headset-microphone. If I must use that from now on, I will (it works very well, as the repeater is only about two miles from me), but if there is any other way I can set up the Echolink software to work with the computer as I once had, I would much rather take that route.

Thanks much and 73.

By all means do get a General ticket. It will allow you more privileges than a Technician or Novice ham license. If you presently have a Technician license, you have all privileges from 50 MHz up, including HF CW on the Novice segments of 80 through ten meters; however, the General license will allow you to operate on more segments of the amateur bands, and with more modes (the Technician ticket only allows CW on the Novice segments of 80 through ten meters, as I mentioned, but the General will open up more privileges on all HF and, of course, VHF and UHF amateur bands).

You can use the 2m repeaters with your UV-5R, as the Technician amateur license (and all other licenses above it) allows privileges from 50 MHz and up; this, of course, includes 2 meters. I have a UV-5R+ (the newest model) which I would use on the 2m repeater in my area, but I cannot seem to set the repeater offset because the instruction manual is very, very poorly written (this handheld is made in China). In the meantime, I will use my Icom IC-T22A 1.5-watt handheld with the local repeater, which is operated by a radio club of which I have been a member since 1987.

73,

You might have better luck using these re-written instructions:

https://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_ProgMem.php

73, jr

The threat of commercial encroachment on the spectrum belonging to us is always there, but, the level varies depending on the bands your talking about. Just last year, there was a movement in France to turn over the 2 meter amateur band to aviation use. Many high profile organizations mobilized against it quickly, and (thankfully) the idea seems to have died down for the moment. If commercial interests prevail over the amateur interests in one country, others aren't far behind.

Defending (and growing) the spectrum allocated for amateur use in the USA is an important part of what the ARRL does. I often believe it's one of the most important things.

Thanks much for that info. I'm sure it will help me quite a bit with setting the transmit offset for local repeaters (where I live, about 30 miles from Cleveland, there is only one local machine, about two miles or so from me, which I can use with a handheld--especially a 1.5-watt rig like my Baofeng UV5R+). As I said in my first post, I could not set the repeater offset on my Baofeng HT because the original instructions are about as clear as muddy water (!), but the rewritten Miklor instructions make a lot more sense; hopefully, I can go ahead, set up the radio for the local machine and be done with it. After 48 years in ham radio (got my first license at the age of 16 in 1972), this Baofeng HT is a real challenge for me (I never had a Chinese HT before this one; my other two HTs were made in Japan and have very understandable instruction manuals, although I cannot use one of the HTs [the Yaesu FT-207R] because the local repeater has 110.9Hz tone access, which that handheld does not support), but I'm sure with these revised programming instructions I can get this Baofeng rig working as intended.

Thanks again and 73,

Update: I finally managed to set the repeater offset to +600kHz on my Baofeng UV-5R+ HT. It works--almost, as I can access the local repeater, but not very well. That is, I can access the machine from my home (about two miles away), but the two hams to whom I spoke last night have told me, while I am getting into the machine OK, my signal into the repeater is very noisy and scratchy, using the Baofeng UV-5R+; however, my Icom IC-T22A hits the machine just fine and the signal is 100 percent readable, so that will be the rig I will use from now on. There must be something about those Baofeng rigs the local repeater doesn't like, or perhaps the rig just doesn't have enough TX signal output to reach the machine solidly; I'm thinking the latter may well be the problem. However, I was informed by the amateur I spoke with last night that I might have better luck reaching the LCARA repeater if I would use the club's 440-MHz machine; I haven't tried that yet, but it's worth a shot. Perhaps that repeater is located geographically closer to me, or it may have a better antenna system (higher, more elements, etc.) than the 2m machine. I will just have to try it one of these days.

Oh well. I'm not licked yet. I have successfully checked into my club's 2m net via Echolink, so that will be the method I use to check into the net from now on. I can do so online with my computer (if I can ever find the correct password for the Qtel software), with my Icom HT, my Amazon Fire tablet, or my smartphone. I realize full well this will not be "real" ham radio, but from what I have read in this thread, I guess that is where the hobby is headed in the Internet age. I have tried several times tonight to find someone to talk with on the local repeater using my Icom HT, but received no replies, just a short "beep" followed by the squelch tail, which lets the operator know he or she is at least hitting the machine; this reinforces what I just said after having read the thread I just mentioned.

73,

Make sure that you are in high power mode....briefly press the # button to toggle between high and low power. An indicator will be seen on the screen top left corner, indicating “L” if you are in low power mode.

jr

Thank you for the info. I won't make the same mistake again. I do wish, however, that the Baofeng HTs would have been designed with an industry-standard antenna connector, rather than the non-standard one they do have. Unless one uses an after-market adapter, any other antenna than the stock one will not fit the antenna connector. The only exception to this is the Nagoya NA-771 VHF/UHF portable antenna, which has likely been designed for use with the Baofeng HTs (UV-5R, UV-5R+, et al).

That IIRC SMA type connector is industry standard. It's used in MRI systems and probably other brands of portable ham radio. You can get an SMA to PL-259 or SMA to BNC adapter if you want to use an older style antenna....When I bought my UV-5R on Amazon I also bought a SMA to PL-258 adapter for $7.
https://www.amazon.com/DHT-Electroni...028523&sr=8-11

Just because you haven't seen a connector before don't mean it's not a standard... New standards arise as technology advances, and some applications have standards that aren't common in other areas.

I use one of those Nagoya whips with my UV-5R (8 watt version), it works great for UHF, less good but still good for VHF. I can hear all 2M/70CM repeaters that are within 30 miles. I also have the USB adapter for mine and programmed all the FRS/GMRS/MURS frequencies in with CHIRP. I also added the local repeaters as channels because messing with the offset/sub audible tone every time you switch repeaters is a pain. I also fixed the squelch values on it too.

I also have an old Realistic HTX-202 VHF walkie, but the battery pack on it is hosed.

I have a Yaesu FT-207R HT which still works, last time I used it, some years ago. The battery pack went West several years ago, so I discarded the pack and put the HT itself in storage; it is still in storage to this day. I can't use the Yaesu HT anymore anyway, since the local 2m repeater now requires a 110.9 Hz PL tone (the Yaesu HT does not have a PL tone generator; I don't know if I could get one for an HT that old anymore). I bought a used Icom IC-T22A HT some time in the 1980s, when AES was still around; this little radio does have a PL tone board, so I can now get into the local 81/21 repeater just fine (I live only about a mile or so from the repeater).

As for the UV-5R VHF-UHF handheld, I have one but it doesn't work well enough to access the above- mentioned 81/21 repeater. That is, I can hit the repeater OK from my location, but not solidly; the last time I tried, I received a report to the effect that my signal was extremely scratchy and, of course, all but unreadable. When I switched to my Icom HT, the problem was solved. The only things I can think of are the battery pack in my UV-5R must have been too weak, or perhaps I wasn't using the proper antenna (I was using a very short rubber-duckie antenna on the radio at the time).

If a rig doesn't have a PL tone generator, you can always roll your own:
https://www.cmlmicro.com/wp-content/...2/db315A-6.pdf
That's what I did to a GE that I had.

80 meters has been wild here and there....lots of fighting and name calling which, although a shame, can be hilarious! I enjoy my nightly scanning of the bands;

Modern rig: Tecsun S-2000
Solid state: Zenith Transoceanic Royal D7000Y
Tube: Hammarlund HQ-180

Best thing I ever did was install an attic antenna. 100' horizontal. Sometimes the built in whip antenna works better on battery power down on the beach though.
Great hobby.... they still haven't " squelched " us . . .

Makes CB look mature

A few friends got their ham licenses a while ago. One gave me a demo of the stuff they were listening to - apparently a local repeater basically broadcasting some guy that made WABC sound off the deep end liberal. I'm sure the other side is out there too, though.

One DID suggest a use for it if we ever went hunting together - little rig under the treestand's seat to key back and forth to each other...

I've been into amateur radio since about 1978 starting in the 3rd grade and have seen the ups and downs but nothing like what we're lacking today. A few of the MPLS/St.Paul area repeaters have some net traffic during the day, drivetime has a few die hard lids to keep the finals warm but the vast majority seems to be imported echolink & IRLP nodes. HF seems dead as well with only a few people on 40M.
As a youth I couldn't get enough of the HF bands. I'd spend the weekends with my Elmer working the stations on his Drake TR-4C, the Donald Duck of SSB and punchy AM signals from across the globe pulled me in while I worked the logbook, the really special nights were when he gave me the pilot seat and D104. I'm going on 52 now and have spent the majority of my life on or around the radio. Yes the smartphone is a transceiver but nothing like what it was when we had a real connection. Unfortunately we are losing amateur radio to the advances of technology, social media of the airwaves has become an app with the excitement of Facebook and google... echolink app anyone?

I live in an apartment building, so cannot use my HF gear. I stay somewhat active in the hobby, however, by using the local 147.81/21 repeater, which is about a mile or so from my apartment. I am a member of the local ham club, the Lake County (Ohio) Amateur Radio Association; have been for many years. I check in to the club's weekly 2-meter net, which also runs on Echolink. I cannot use EL with my computer at this time, however, since the program was erased from my system the last time I had it in for repairs; I am still trying to figure out how to reinstall EL on the computer since I switched to Ubuntu a few years ago, but I can still use EL and check in to the net using my 1.5-watt Icom IC-T22A HT with a 1/4-wave telescoping portable antenna.

Amateur radio is changing, to be sure, but it isn't dead yet, not by a long shot; I honestly do not believe for a second it will die any time soon, not as long as there are local FM repeaters and services such as Echolink. At nearly 65 years of age, I have no intention of moving from my apartment, so EL is allowing me to stay active in a hobby I have enjoyed since I was 16 years old in 1972.

Certainly, running strictly 2m FM and Echolink is not the same (far from it) as working the world with an HF station, but, my situation being what it is, I have pretty much resigned myself to it and am fairly used to it by now. Running an HT with Echolink and through my club's 2m repeater is nowhere near what I was running when I lived in a Cleveland suburb, but I am still somewhat active in the hobby, which is all that matters to me.

I will not let my license expire, or become completely inactive, just because I cannot use HF as I had been accustomed to when I had my HF station. One big advantage to running strictly 2m with a handheld is I no longer have to be concerned about losing antennas in windstorms (I lost at least one all-band HF dipole in high winds and snowstorms when I was active on HF), or having to worry about lightning striking the antenna.

One other tradeoff is I cannot use CW on the local FM repeater (or any such machine, for that matter), so I am resigned to using voice on that repeater. I wish I could use CW as I formerly did, but my circumstances, again, are such that I am more or less forced to operate FM voice, or nothing.

Using a local ham's station is out of the question as well. I say this because one local amateur, who lives only a block or so away from me, will not speak to me or have anything to do with me; the reasons for this are a mystery to me as I never did or said anything, that I am aware of, anyway, to cause him to shun me as he has been doing, literally for decades. I do not know any other amateurs in my area either (I live in a very small town, population 3109); I do not want to pester or to be a nuisance to anyone in the club I belong to, so when the person I just mentioned started ignoring me, I just gave up. That is, I will (and do) still occasionally check into my club's 2m net, but that's all.

I never thought after almost 50 years in ham radio it would come to this, but....oh, well. I guess if I had moved to a large city rather than to the village I relocated to 21 years ago (the reasons I moved from the Cleveland suburb in which I lived and operated my station until then are immaterial), things would be quite a bit different, but I am here now, and, given my age, I am in no position to move again except in case of a dire emergency.

73,

Anyone been cruising the bands lately? Some interesting content. Wish I spoke about four more languages though!

I haven't fired up my rig in a few weeks, last time I did I made a contact in Chile on 17m I think. That horizontal loop I put up last November really rocks despite only being 20' up and me only running 100 watts. I also have a (tr)usdx kit coming in the mail. I'm looking forward to building that.

That's a cool looking kit. Now I'm tempted to order one. I build tube hifi in my free time. Was supposed to be a business endeavor but I've kept 90% of my builds for myself so far.

I'll be firing up my Hammarlund HQ-180 this evening. Fully restored and aligned, these perform quite well for an antique. You have to be accustomed to twiddling knobs to use one properly. I think a lot wind up dumpstered or Ebay'd due to lack of operator knowledge on antenna design and such.

It is a cool night here and pretty humid. Just feels like a radio night.