08-12-2012, 12:25 AM
You've probably heard all this before, but I'll run through it, just for the record. (Yes, at this point, you are most cordially invited to yawn! 
)
Basically, Amateur Radio ain't what it used to be: the 'amateur' bit has all but vapourised.
Long gone are the days when the vast majority of Radio Amateurs built their own transmitting, receiving and test gear. My hey-day in that arena was when the 144 - 146 MHz allocation was made available to Class-B licensees: and I had a great deal of fun, designing, building and operating my own kit.
These days, of course, I am allowed to transmit on all AmRad freqs., but somehow, the appeal just isn't there anymore. But I still like to experiment with bits of home-brew test gear - so a bit of the old spirit still remains.
Here's a brief anecdote to illustrate the above claims.
Today, whilst in Cheltenham, I popped into my favourite Radio & Electronics hardware shop for a tube of heat-sink compound.
"Don't stock that stuff anymore" came the reply, "don't get the call for it".
So I enquired: "Really? So what do people use for the TO-3 power transistors they buy from you?"
"Don't sell those anymore, either: no-one uses TO-3 cans anymore. No point in having stuff on the shelf that we can't shift."
Like it or not, you can see that retailer's point of view.
So I went to Maplins: bought some H/S compound there. My! It isn't cheap, either.
But it was a 'must have' since I needed some to repair my network server: over-heating processor: the compound had dried up. That PC is working fine now.
'Amateur radio & electronics': Think about it, read about it, learn about it, experiment, build it, use it, repair it. Then you can say "That's mine: I did that. And I know how it works."
'Nuff said.
Al.
)Basically, Amateur Radio ain't what it used to be: the 'amateur' bit has all but vapourised.
Long gone are the days when the vast majority of Radio Amateurs built their own transmitting, receiving and test gear. My hey-day in that arena was when the 144 - 146 MHz allocation was made available to Class-B licensees: and I had a great deal of fun, designing, building and operating my own kit.These days, of course, I am allowed to transmit on all AmRad freqs., but somehow, the appeal just isn't there anymore. But I still like to experiment with bits of home-brew test gear - so a bit of the old spirit still remains.
Here's a brief anecdote to illustrate the above claims.
Today, whilst in Cheltenham, I popped into my favourite Radio & Electronics hardware shop for a tube of heat-sink compound.
"Don't stock that stuff anymore" came the reply, "don't get the call for it".
So I enquired: "Really? So what do people use for the TO-3 power transistors they buy from you?"
"Don't sell those anymore, either: no-one uses TO-3 cans anymore. No point in having stuff on the shelf that we can't shift."
Like it or not, you can see that retailer's point of view.
So I went to Maplins: bought some H/S compound there. My! It isn't cheap, either.
But it was a 'must have' since I needed some to repair my network server: over-heating processor: the compound had dried up. That PC is working fine now. 'Amateur radio & electronics': Think about it, read about it, learn about it, experiment, build it, use it, repair it. Then you can say "That's mine: I did that. And I know how it works."
'Nuff said.
Al.
