My conclusion is that we need to direct ham radio toward the 40 to 70 year olds who are less interested in the tech end of it and more interested in the people end of it.
Amen! We need to get people talking to each other..
APRS, ... I have yet to find a single use for it. APRS, like ham radio, is a low tech solution looking for a problem.
Not really. It is a single information resource channel that links people together so they can find each other in the vast dimensions of position/time/frequency domains. On the front panel of your APRS radio you can see everything in ham radio happening around you no matter where you are.
Technology passed APRS and Packet radio 10 years ago... APRS... are fighting bandwidth [and rates] too low...
No, APRS has plenty of bandwidth. It is not trying to be the be-all-end-all data channel that everyone gets on their cell phone. It is the single resource info channel where each person gets to beacon his present activity in his one-second of air time to show what he is doing right now, here, on ham radio. APRS is not an end in itself. It is the common resource channel where people announce what they are doing elsewhere in ham radio so others can be alerted and join him if interested, in time, position, and frequency..
However, your competition, the commercial carriers have you beat on price, availability, and reliability.
If people are thinking ham radio is in competition with cellphones, I think they miss the hobby. We do it for fun. And APRS lets us see who is nearby in RF range and what they are doing and what freq they are on so we can find each other...
The world is no longer impressed with amateur solutions to Telecommunications just as it is no longer impressed with using horses for basic transportation.
Im sorry you have such a bleak view of the amateur radio hobby. Those who see amateur radio as being in competition with commercial giants simply are missing the hobby completely... Just get a cell phone and Iphone, pay your bills and be an almost-happy consumer. Such consumers are never happy, because there is always the next gimic around the corner.. Lots of folks like to ride horses. Getting there in their case is not about beating a car. Its about the ride...
So think of APRS as a single continent wide channel to find like minded people doing something in real time and showing where they are, what they are doing, and what frequency they are monitoring. APRS shrinks all the dimensions of unknowns and helps people find each other.... As you say, to talk and share the hobby..
See http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/localinfo.html
Bob, WB4APR
From: bruninga@usna.edu To: K5GNA@aol.com; amsat-bb@amsat.org Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:03:21 -0400 Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Vanishing Hams
Today, with CB, Cell Phones, cordless phones, FRS, etc. --
everyone is a radio operator. Now, military communications
is done with a keyboard or microphone -- pretty much universal skills now.
Do not overlook how kids use key-pad text-messaging as the greatest revolution in communications of all time... Even
some
old-fud adults are learning how to use it..
Then consider that APRS has had global text-messaging (and email) via the keypad of the D7 and D700 radios for over 10 years now, yet how many old-fuds ever even considered using
it
or introduced this exciting new capability to their kids?
You can even send text-messages or emails from your HT or
Radio
from anywhere on earth via any of the APRS satellites (ISS, GO-32, PCSAT-1, etc)... We even suggested that everyone
should
learn how to do this and exercise it during Satellite-Simulated-Emergency-Tests. You can even use any
old
TNC and any old radio to do this. See: http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/sset.html
Although the Amateur Radio Community shines when there is loss of communications during a disaster, with newer technology, even that could change.
What is hard in ham radio is "change". We basically have to wait for some ops to die in order for some new things to be tried and to take hold...
Maybe the ARRL needs to sponsor an award for bringing new Hams into the community. Otherwise, someday, no one will remember what those letters even stood for.
A good start might be to sponsor an award for old fuds that
try
something new... And then show it to a kid... <wink>
P.S. Only about 2% of ham radio operators use APRS, and probably only 10% of them (0.2% of all hams) have tried this global text messaging (or email) feature. Yet, even 10
years
ago, and ahead of its time we had it in Ham Radio!
From an old fud..
Bob, WB4APR
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Stay in touch when you're away with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TA GLM_WL_messenger2_072008 _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: