On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 09:21 AM, Gareth G4SDW (ne G8DXY) GQRP #3339 wrote:
The number of licensees today far exceeds those that existed in those years
The numbers of radio amateurs in the 1950s and 1960s does not matter a fig in today's environment.
What matters is external perception of amateur radio NOT?anything that?radio amateurs themselves might think = zero value!!!
Our ability to preserve the amateur bands depends upon us being able to demonstrate value to spectrum regulators in terms that they understand. Not in the antiquated concepts of?a very considerable number of?established?radio amateurs.
Amateur radio is a broad church. This includes both those that get satisfaction from technical challenges; for example the '122GHz and up' lecture that attracted over 50 people at the RSGB convention(in my lecture stream), to those that just natter on the amateur bands.
Whether you like it or not, amateur radio, particularly?with the established ?VHF/UHF bands?
IS a number of signals on the bands game,
NOT a technical pursuit when it comes to the crunch with spectrum regulators.
At VHF I?follow probably the most extreme technical side of the hobby going. I took the RAE in 1969 and took the Morse test, to operate 144MHz EME in 1982.?I have designed and built a fully remote 144MHz EME station capable of working others with as little as 100W and a 9 element beam anywhere on the planet.?I have published construction articles and won several trophys.
Although some might consider my aspect of the hobby as technically elite?I recognise that we need radio amateurs doing a lot of other stuff, be it FM/DV repeater usage or APRS to keep the VHF/UHF bands occupied and reduce the threat to us losing part or all of them. But I am certainly do not see myself as elite!!!
I am a radio amateur.I do not respect any radio amateur that sees himself/herself as elite compared with a raw new?entrant to the hobby.
You cannot?say in all honesty that those that chat about their haemorrhoids on 40 and 80m during the day time pursue a technical hobby! In many ways there are many CB operators that?use the radio spectrum for better purposes!
?You should have guessed it by now: I see you and your attitudes as part of the problem that amateur radio must overcome if?amateur radio?going to have any sort of viable future.
John G4SWX
John G4SWX