[GreenKeys] an idea

[Lee Mushel]

Eric,

I see a terrible problem with ham radio!   During a period of over twenty 
years I was inactive and when I returned to the hobby as a retirement 
activity I found it completely changed from what I remembered.   I feel the 
difficulty is due to the overpowering "richness" of our interest!   There 
are so many things that I want to do and can't find time for  that it's 
almost depressing!  Upon my return I was shocked to receive one of the first 
books I ordered, RTTY of course, and saw not one reference to a Teletype 
machine!  I was aware that the computer was being used but I hadn't realized 
that it had replaced the machine very nearly 100%!   I have to plead guilty 
to not having been on the air with "true" RTTY although, surely, I could do 
it if I only had the time!   Of course I have a couple of your fine 
demodulators and I don't know how many other terminal units including both 
commercial and home brew.   I do have a pristine 28KSR with the telephone 
box from the hard of hearing circuit and a half dozen other machines that 
require only the flip of the power toggle to work on a local loop.   I even 
brought back a dial telephone with the properly shaped receiver to turn on 
that machine!

But there are so many other competing aspects of ham radio now that I simply 
don't know where to turn next!   The first thing to hit me was Software 
Defined Radio and  the multitude of digital formats.  For an old person with 
declining abilities that has taken me three years to become "sort of" 
comfortable.   I had never given much thought to emergency communications 
before but now I have substantial coin and effort invested in that.

I have always been more interested in electronic construction than operating 
and that continues.  I have spent a lot of time "elmering" and while at 
first I wasn't sure this was a rewarding activity I recently have been 
forced to change my mind since some activities of the "students" are simply 
mind boggling.   I can now claim some success in bringing them past the two 
meter repeater stage!  And they do understand that it is absolutely 
necessary to "progress" past the Technician Class license.

At the moment I have five antenna projects that I hope to complete before 
the Wisconsin Winter sets in.   I know I won't make it!  But one has to be 
done today since I promised that I would be listening for an east coast net 
tonight.   I'm sure a lot of folks share this problem.

73

Lee  K9WRU  WD2XSH/32
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <epvgk at limpoc.com>
To: "Jim Haynes" <jhhaynes at earthlink.net>
Cc: <GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 6:21 PM
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] an idea


> On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 07:13:46PM -0500, Jim Haynes wrote:
>>
>> But now if we are worried about the telephone/internet infrastructure,
>> well there is always amateur radio, "when all else fails."  Some members
>> of this group are operating with Real Teletype machines rather than with
>> computers.
>>
>> Jim W6JVE
>>
>
> The ironic thing is if you want to talk to someone via RTTY on HF radio,
> you almost need to arrange it ahead of time on the internet. The few times
> I've tried to find anyone to talk to with the teletype, all the traffic
> out there was contest/DX traffic, no conversation, and only "599 599 TX
> QRZ???" type exchanges. I've only ever been able to make an actual contact
> two or three times with someone who was willing to talk to a domestic,
> non-contest operator... :(
>
> eric
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