Jeff,

Perhaps I should retrench in my comments, as I do not disagree with you. My entire ham radio experience "is" that challenge. I am an engineer and what "we" do is design and build. EME and Microwave provide that. Satellite, also, but to a lessor level...it is my "desert after the meal".

I have a dear friend that absolutely refuses anything dealing with IRLB or Echolink. But I feel they serve a purpose and do provide a service. There is no incentive to build, except to the folks that provide the service. That is how I look on repeaters. They are handy for talking over. They do not "excite" because that is what I do professionally (repeaters are work, not fun). At work I have 7 remote bases to maintain.

So in the back of my mind I was thinking that the IRB or IRLB linking for running a remote base is merely a utility...same as leasing a phone line. Just a piece of the station (like a microphone). Setting up a remote base can be ham radio fun (like repeaters are for many). But if you are merely accessing a public remote base then its like buying long distance telephone service (yawn). But if your living situation prohibits direct participation in a facet of ham radio (apartment restrictions, not enough money) then it is a way to experience some of the fun (sort of like hanging over at the neighbor ham's super station). Whether this will become an incentive to get involved in at a "personal" level is a question. I think that is like anything else one comes in contact with in their life. Some do, some don't.

But I am "FOR" new ideas, and new ways. Keeping it "new" is FUN. Why I am now getting into MW listening on 500-KHz. Its new and still falls under the big umbrella called "weak-signal". BTW DX began as a "weak-signal" activity, but on HF-DX (mostly) has become a sport (competition). Satellite and QRP now provide much of the fun of the early HF DX...discovering how far one can push the envelope!

73's Ed - KL7UW 0.5 - 10,368 MHz, sat, eme, m/s, radio astronomy, SDR's, ...no end in sight ;-)

At 02:31 AM 4/27/2007, Jeff Davis, KE9V wrote:

On 4/26/07, Edward Cole [email protected] wrote:

...

We have seen this debate here in Alaska with the '"diehard" (read this also as the super pro-CW) ham disliking anything dealing with marriage between the Internet and ham radio.

I don't think my position could be considered "diehard" and as the operator of IRLP node 4212 I have no problem with the "marriage between the Internet and ham radio." In fact, I think it serves a great purpose and I use it daily. I wish we had a weekly AMSAT Net via Echolink or IRLP so we could use such technologies to further discuss the future of ham radio in space (anyone want to join me?) without the vagaries of HF propagation.

But I think that there are certain facets of the hobby, like satellites and EME and probably others, where folks get involved specifically for the technology. Would a homebrewer without access to a soldering pin be content to watch others build equipment on a live video feed? Would there be a thrill in logging on to a super station on another continent from your laptop and working moonbounce?

Unless one is a skeptic that this sort of thing (EME) actually takes place and just needs some proof, I think we all believe that with the right equipment the deed CAN be done, but the challenge is in doing it.

...

So I have no problem with remote bases linked by IRLB, echolink, or like technology. As long as any records, contest entry reflects the actual radio transmitter QTH.

The amateur satellite world has a unique problem. It doesn't work well without satellites and those cost money to build and to launch. If we were to setup a dozen super stations around the world, all fully accessible via the internet -- and few built their own stations anymore, will those Internet users financially support future AMSAT projects?

If your entire investment in amateur radio is the laptop that you already own, are you as inclined to support costly future projects as the operator who has invested perhaps thousands of dollars and hours of labor in assembling and building a world class groundstation?

I think there is some evidence that they do not...

20 years ago there was a very popular idea that AMSAT should focus on EZ-Sats because that would get more people involved with amateur satellites since all they would need to operate them was a handheld transceiver. Soon, we had all kinds of new operators using the flying FM repeater satellites but curiously, AMSAT membership took a nose dive from which it has yet to recover.

Perhaps making everything as "easy" as just logging on to a remote station isn't such a good idea either?

Jeff, KE9V _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

73, Ed - KL7UW ====================================== BP40IQ 50-MHz - 10-GHz www.kl7uw.com 144-EME: FT-847, mgf-1801, 4x-xpol-20, 185w DUBUS Magazine USA Rep [email protected] ======================================