Comments by "Sam Glaim" (@samglaim4274) on "Amateur Radio - The Dying Hobby?" video.
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Great video Lewis but wow, a BIG subject with many facets to it.
Speaking personally… I first got my (‘B’ class) licence in the early 1980’s and after about 50 days of practice, I took my Morse test with Mr Jardine at the Marine Surveyors Office in Liverpool and then applied for my (Class ‘A’) full licence.
Even then, the ‘old timers’ sort of looked down on the way the examination for Radio Amateurs (2 papers… multi-choice City and Guilds exams) was conducted as previously, the exams were full, written examinations!
Also, the requirement was for them (the ‘old timers’ 😊) that they had to do a certain amount of time using Morse Code on the bands before they could use voice modes; so again, there was a certain amount of …. ‘them youngsters of today … they have it really easy with the multi-choice exams and being able to use Voice modes as soon as they get their class ‘A’ ticket’ attitude …. So, I guess nothing is new?
I always enjoyed using CW and RTTY and very early on after getting my full licence, I got sucked into the then new digital mode of Packet Radio.
In fact, it was getting into Packet radio that led me into using computers with radio after buying a cheap, second hand (chances are it was third hand? 😊 ) 8086 IBM compatible (I’d tried using a ZX Spectrum for RTTY, but the ZX gave off more RF than my QRP rig 😉) and I ended up doing a couple of years at college (early 1990’s…. the age when computers were going to bring in the revolution of “The Paperless Office” … wow, that turned out to be a joke with the advent of cheap printers) doing ‘IT’ type stuff…. So, I always consider that the hobby of Amateur Radio got me into computing 😉
There’s always been radio ‘pirates’ on the bands and I guess there always will. Those ‘IQ0’s’, as they used to be called, who disrupted repeaters etc. are still there now it seems (maybe old ‘pirates’ never die…. They just keep blocking the local repeaters? 😊 ).
I didn’t use Amateur Radio for many years (nearly 20) until an old radio amateur pal told me about these ‘Chinese Radio’s’ that you could buy on eBay for about £15 and I was persuaded to get one.
It was about that time that I spotted your videos (and others) on YouTube, talking about Amateur Radio (wish there had been YouTube when I first started in the 80’s 😊) and finding that the hobby had taken a big turn towards digital, computer linked modes and I was again, fascinated.
I mainly now use SDR for SWL on the HF bands and again, I guess these modes are pushing the hobby forward. I always used to think that RTTY and Packet Radio were bleeding edge, but the HF bands now seem full of narrow band, digital modes… interesting stuff.
It’s hard to know how the hobby can be kept alive (when I first got my ticket, there were always discussions on the lines of … “use the bands, or lose them” … so again, nothing new I guess?) but I think people like yourself, who take the time to make videos about the hobby is a good thing and hopefully encourage others to try the hobby out.
Keep up the good work. Many thanks.
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