This is a quick hitter post but it something I think about often.
Let’s take FM repeaters. The things we perceive as gateway systems for anyone with a HT, or for the local version of HF low-band nets. We have repeaters. The frequency pairs, tones, and networking are a mystery. We also have APRS which is great at squawking out test strings. Why are repeaters not squawking their pertinent info in a standardized format, which any modern radio has the computing horsepower to convert to a memory channel or VFO setting?
We are still using keypad menus that make a 1998 Nokia Stickphone look like a test case in great UI design. Ask most hams (this is an opinion) and they will tell you that identifying repeaters, programming repeaters, and determining where they are is a pain in the butt if not impossible.
So we have the tech but we have not integrated it. The same thing can be said for most DV systems. Hotspots, radio software, digital repeaters… all pretty much adrift. If you have great D-STAR repeaters and the right rig maybe it works for you. Otherwise forget it. You kinda use the same few rooms with your hotspot. Mostly over an internet connection… Not exactly robust. Yeah you are communicating with your micro-repeater hotspot. Technically radio but your RF contact is measured in feet. Keep telling yourself it is ham radio. Try not thinking about how that hotspot could be operating on GMRS just as easily. You’ll just get upset.
Most ham radio software is either DOS-era or WEB-0.5 era, with bad interfaces and bad hardware support. We are still tying much of your hardware interface tech to RS-232 standards. In the main we are more of a LARP or SCA hobby today than a cutting edge technical pursuit. And it is a foundation that is crumbling beneath our feet.
But what about emergency communications, you say?
With the recent questions about why Amateur Radio hasn’t played a bigger role in natural disasters like the recent (Summer 2023) Maui wildfires and such, one answer might be that our tech sucks. Half-duplex systems with little if no interconnection with public safety systems are not particularly useful in an emergency. DV repeaters and APRS are not particularly useful in an emergency if their use isn’t backed with a lot of training, coordination and the proper equipment. If I was in a wildfire and had to rely on sending messages from the keypad of my FT3D I would become a briquette before figuring out that trash interface.
And I have been into radio for about 50 years and a ham for over 30. I’m convinced that we don’t really have a useful communication network. Those Vietnam era phone patch days predate global satellite networks by 30 years. Nobody wants to go back there. We are not trained or equipped to integrate with public emergency services.
So what does that leave? Chatting about our medical situation, contesting, grid-chasing, political ranting over DV networks, pushing modes like RTTY as current when they are antiquated… You like RTTY? Great. Me too. But as a community we need to be honest about the impact nostalgia is having on the long term prospects for the bulk of our amateur radio hobby/service. Nobody is whipping out a RTTY system in an emergency. I’ll leave it at that.
As I said, a quick-hit post but I’ll close by saying we don’t need to eliminate any old tech. But, we do need an infusion of new, useful, integrated tech that will carry forward for another 100 years.
[editor’s cheap shot: From the constant stream of hams I see on internet forums and social media who can’t figure out a sound card interface I understand that I am typing this into the vacuum of space. Thanks for sticking with it. 73]
petebrunelli 