First off, let me reiterate something I think that all of you who read this blog already know - first and foremost I'm an HF guy. That is my main source of activity in Amateur Radio. I love connecting with other parts of the world using RF energy, especially at QRP power levels. I've not been a big VHF/UHF person. I do keep one in the car, of course, for nets and socializing with friends. The only other serious use I've made of VHF was when I used to utilize 2 Meters for the uplink to RS-10/11.
The club to which I belong, the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club, had a meeting the other night. I did not attend. The guest speaker from Yaesu and the topic of discussion was hooking our repeater to something called Wires-X. I believe that's some sort of repeater controller / node linking hardware/software combo that will allow many different things to happen.
To be honest with you, that doesn't excite me a that much. WIRES-X, DMR, FUSION, DSTAR, ALLSTAR - it's all just a bunch of alphabet soup to me. I am a dinosaur, a relic, an anachronism. I like analog, and I prefer that my radios generate RF, which then travels through the atmosphere to be captured by another radio at the other end of the connection. Once you start hooking things up to the internet and use hot spots and all other means of "artificial propagation" my eyes get glassy and my mind goes numb. I have used Echolink a few times and my reaction is best summed up with one word - "meh".
That said - that's me. That may be the way the world is going and that's fine. I know there's a world of Ops out there who use these methods to communicate and it makes them quite happy - and in turn, that makes me happy for them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of these new technologies, they're just not my bag. Like I said, I'm a dinosaur. So as long as I can communicate on our repeater (and others) with my ancient and outmoded analog radios, I'll be a happy camper. The day that's no longer possible, and that I would be forced to purchase some kind of transceiver capable of digital communications is the day I give up VHF/UHF forever.
Kind of goes against the "pioneering spirit" I guess - but that's just me.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Sending you a picture I found somewhere. Maybe you have already seen it. It is of two attractive women sitting on a bench in front of a pub. Each is holding a beer and they seem to be talking and laughing about guys. One says "So then he says, 'Let me show you my logbook.' It was all FT8."
ReplyDelete"artificial propagation", Love It!!
ReplyDelete