--

Hi Simon

Its been like that for donkies though.

But is getting worse.( abit like stamp collecting!) .my kids now 16 up soooooo uninterested in ham radio..why would they be? Internet, gaming etc..plus schooling here in Uk is crap..atleast i was taught about physics and radio.( though my english was bad as you may be able to tell.)

This Is the reason why now i am at age 57 are badgering the “older types” for info..what works say on 160m antennas what does not..etc..knowledge will be lost otherwise.

Secondary, we as ( old, had license for 40 yrs.) hams “ put down” cb operators trying to join us..WE NEED them!! Yes one will have to put up with “ my name here is xyz,” plus a long story about an end feed long wire feed with a miracle balun, but that or losing Ham radio? I chose ex cber! The more the better.

Atleast the ex cbers do not sit on 80m jamming like some hams do..

I hate ft8 etc..so boring...but times change.. ( anyone reading my mini rant, please dont use 400w plus on data..not what it was designed for.!)

Simon g0zen ( mini rant over..)

On Tue, 2021-05-04 at 15:10 +0100, Mag loop Simon wrote:

Hi Simon

Its been like that for donkies though.

And yet a recent FoI request to Ofcom was answered with a list of
currently issued callsigns/licences in the UK with >96,000 entries.

But is getting worse.( abit like stamp collecting!) .my kids now 16
up soooooo uninterested in ham radio..why would they be? Internet,
gaming etc..plus schooling here in Uk is crap..atleast i was taught
about physics and radio.( though my english was bad as you may be
able to tell.)

You have to be bloody-minded to want to do things the hard way, schools
teach children to be compliant and not to question received wisdom. Not
like that when I was at school, which is over 40 years ago. We were
taught how to think.

This Is the reason why now i am at age 57 are badgering the “older
types” for info..what works say on 160m antennas what does
not..etc..knowledge will be lost otherwise.

I've just put up a Terminated Folded Dipole, wideband 1.6-30MHz and
easily matched, the termination doesn't absorb much power and it works
really well considering it's at ~20 feet. Originally created in the
late 40s by an amateur who was also in the US Navy. There are lots of
antenna books, but at MF/HF if you don't know about the ground
underneath them then you are going to be guessing.

Secondary,  we as ( old, had license for 40 yrs.) hams “ put down” cb
operators trying to join us..WE NEED them!! Yes one will have to put
up with “ my name here is xyz,” plus a long story about an end feed
long wire feed with a miracle balun,  but that or losing Ham radio? I
chose ex cber! The more the better.

ITYM "the first personal here would be".

Atleast the ex cbers do not sit on 80m jamming like some hams do..

Do they? I have to confess that I can't see the point. Maybe they've
had enough descriptions of back pain and haemorrhoids.

I hate ft8  etc..so boring...but times change.. ( anyone reading my
mini rant, please dont use 400w plus on data..not what it was
designed for.!)

FT8 has become very popular due to a combination of fairly poor HF
propagation, QRN from omnipresent badly-designed electronics and in my
case sharing the shack (lounge) with my wife which makes voice modes a
bit more difficult.

Simon g0zen  ( mini rant over..)

Rants are good. We should all rant more. It's the last weapon against
dictatorship.

--

Brian G8SEZ (42 years plus SWL beforehand)

Simon-the-Lesser,

Oh so true...

And : Thanks for your Mag-Loop gems.

Michael