Simon HB9DRV wrote: > There's much more to amateur radio than just operating - at least over this > side of the pond. Here self-education is important. Despite all the code > I've written there's nothing I enjoy more than listening to 160m CW.
And that's why the predictions of the death of Amateur Radio often fall down, in my experience, Simon. Like a lot of hobbies people start on one thing but then move onto other things. Some of these other things may be older modes of communication like using Morse code or Hellscriber etc. I can think back to people who started out with an FM only 2M radio bolted into the car and chatting on the local 2M repeater in the 80s. Often decried as 'not Amateur Radio' but many moved onto HF and alot even onto CW on the HF bands. I've also heard the arguments about mobile phones and other modern technologies like VoIP 'killing' the hobby but I think this misses the point, for me anyway, of Amateur Radio. For me it isn't just about talking to someone a long way away, it's the fact that it isn't always possible to do it and finding why it isn't possible some times but possible at others. It's not even about always communicating only with someone I already know either. I'm not knocking the development of systems that allow communication to occur by finding the best frequency as some work has to go into developing it and implementing it. I've heard the arguments that the people who eventually use the system didn't put in that work, but like the 2M FM repeater system example it might get someone talking to someone else about the delights of using some other mode, or making a sked to try something else just to see if it might work. Like most hobbies and interests, Amateur Radio will always develop and change and one mode or system of communication is not going to persuade everyone, or even every new comer, to use only that mode of communication. Otherwise, they wouldn't use Amateur Radio, they would use a mobile phone or VoIP... Personally, I do enjoy a whole range of different digital modes. I'm not really set up for fast band hopping and I tend to use the Internet to arrange skeds, but I don't see them as the ultimate threat to Amateur Radio either. I also do think that it would be just as bad to have everyone, say, on 20M all at the same time, or any other band come to that. A range of different modes and interests keeps everyone spread out a bit. Dave (G0DJA)
