10-02-2013, 10:56 AM
He can't, but that isn't confined to newly licensed amateurs - few radio amateurs, however long they've been licensed, have the competence or the test gear to be sure of that - I doubt it will ever cross their minds. They rely on equipment designed to a high standard which experience of the years has shown has excellent immunity from harmonic radation outside the amateurs bands.
Any impositions by public bodies, be it Ofcom or the 'jobsworths' at the local council, must be both proportionate, and necessary to minimise the risks which those impositions seek to obviate or minimise. In the case of amateur radio, the prime risk is to other spectrum users, notably the risk to the emergency service and air traffic control. The reality is that no such instances arise, except where deliberate and intentional. Sadly, most of the complaints and prosecutions brought about by Ofcom have been caused BY radio amateurs TO radio amateurs, notably, repeater jammers. One such guy in Hull was caught a few years ago in a joint police/Ofcom operation and put through the courts.
When I was first licensed (as G8JIN for a few months in 1974 till I passed the needless Morse test to gain access to the HF bands, and became G4EBT), a GPO inspector came to visit me to check that I had the necessary test gear to check if I was actually within the amateur bands, and to check for harmonic radation. At that time, the 'Burns TC1 Wavemeter' was the standard bit of kit, and really, not much better than an amateur could design and build.
But that was back in the era when some amateurs still built their own equipment. To a large extent, SSB put paid to that, and with the falling price (in relative terms), of equipment, and the lack of availability and cost of items such as coils, tuning caps etc, plus the time involved, the hobby has metamorphosed from the immediate post-war era, when it was primarily a technical, experimental and practical hobby, with many amateurs having skills gained in the armed forces, or radio and TV trade, into a hobby which is primarily one of 'appliance operating'. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense - the same could be said of hobbies such as photography. How many amateur photographers have a dark room, and enlarge, develop and print their pictures? Next to none would be my guess.
I'd always been interested in radio and electroncs since a schoolboy in the early 1950s, but didn't take the RAE until I was in my mid 30s as I always considered it to be an 'old mans' hobby', as indeed it still largely is. I only really took the exam to be able to legally construct and experment with low power transmitters, but by the mid 70s, amateurs were already saying on air 'We're strictly non-technical at this end, I'm using a Kenyasuicom Mk 3 do dah', the weather here in Bristol today is sunny but cold'. I just don't have time for that malarkey. Tony Hancock's depiction of radio 'hams' was too close for comfort - more like a documentary than a comedy.
There is of course the notable exception of QRP operation, which is where most of the expertise of the former hobby still clings on, and there are excellent kits such as Elecraft in the States, and some in the UK too.
One of the consequences of shop-bought transceivers with solid state PA stages is that wheres amateurs with a full licence are entitled to put out 400 Watts PEP on SSB, almost all commercial equipment is limited to 100 Watts, and by the time the signal has reach the anternna feed point, (probably a shop-bought G5RV), with losses and mismatches, and built in auto-tune aerial matching systems which progressivley reduce tramstted power, the radiated signal will be much less than that. But it doesn't really matter much anyway, because 100 Watts isn't ten times the signal strength of ten watts - it's only double, and 1 KW is only double that of 100 Watts.
It's a fact that lots of people derive immense enjoyment from amateur radio operating, but to me, it holds no fascination at all. Too sedanrary, and it would make me old before my time to be sitting in a 'virtual park bench', exchanging pointless pleasantaries with other old buffers. I don't think I'll live long enought to develop that mindset, and if I do, I'll probably be in a care home!
Really, I'm a 'RHINO' - 'Radio Ham In Name Only' and it's just my take on things - I don't seek to impose my views on those who may see it differently, as many will do. I think that with social meda and what not, it's largely become a hobby that old men used to engage in in their garden sheds before internet came along.
Waffled, dribbled and opined Yorkie (sounding too much like an old man on a 'virtual park bench'!)
Any impositions by public bodies, be it Ofcom or the 'jobsworths' at the local council, must be both proportionate, and necessary to minimise the risks which those impositions seek to obviate or minimise. In the case of amateur radio, the prime risk is to other spectrum users, notably the risk to the emergency service and air traffic control. The reality is that no such instances arise, except where deliberate and intentional. Sadly, most of the complaints and prosecutions brought about by Ofcom have been caused BY radio amateurs TO radio amateurs, notably, repeater jammers. One such guy in Hull was caught a few years ago in a joint police/Ofcom operation and put through the courts.
When I was first licensed (as G8JIN for a few months in 1974 till I passed the needless Morse test to gain access to the HF bands, and became G4EBT), a GPO inspector came to visit me to check that I had the necessary test gear to check if I was actually within the amateur bands, and to check for harmonic radation. At that time, the 'Burns TC1 Wavemeter' was the standard bit of kit, and really, not much better than an amateur could design and build.
But that was back in the era when some amateurs still built their own equipment. To a large extent, SSB put paid to that, and with the falling price (in relative terms), of equipment, and the lack of availability and cost of items such as coils, tuning caps etc, plus the time involved, the hobby has metamorphosed from the immediate post-war era, when it was primarily a technical, experimental and practical hobby, with many amateurs having skills gained in the armed forces, or radio and TV trade, into a hobby which is primarily one of 'appliance operating'. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense - the same could be said of hobbies such as photography. How many amateur photographers have a dark room, and enlarge, develop and print their pictures? Next to none would be my guess.
I'd always been interested in radio and electroncs since a schoolboy in the early 1950s, but didn't take the RAE until I was in my mid 30s as I always considered it to be an 'old mans' hobby', as indeed it still largely is. I only really took the exam to be able to legally construct and experment with low power transmitters, but by the mid 70s, amateurs were already saying on air 'We're strictly non-technical at this end, I'm using a Kenyasuicom Mk 3 do dah', the weather here in Bristol today is sunny but cold'. I just don't have time for that malarkey. Tony Hancock's depiction of radio 'hams' was too close for comfort - more like a documentary than a comedy.
There is of course the notable exception of QRP operation, which is where most of the expertise of the former hobby still clings on, and there are excellent kits such as Elecraft in the States, and some in the UK too.
One of the consequences of shop-bought transceivers with solid state PA stages is that wheres amateurs with a full licence are entitled to put out 400 Watts PEP on SSB, almost all commercial equipment is limited to 100 Watts, and by the time the signal has reach the anternna feed point, (probably a shop-bought G5RV), with losses and mismatches, and built in auto-tune aerial matching systems which progressivley reduce tramstted power, the radiated signal will be much less than that. But it doesn't really matter much anyway, because 100 Watts isn't ten times the signal strength of ten watts - it's only double, and 1 KW is only double that of 100 Watts.
It's a fact that lots of people derive immense enjoyment from amateur radio operating, but to me, it holds no fascination at all. Too sedanrary, and it would make me old before my time to be sitting in a 'virtual park bench', exchanging pointless pleasantaries with other old buffers. I don't think I'll live long enought to develop that mindset, and if I do, I'll probably be in a care home!
Really, I'm a 'RHINO' - 'Radio Ham In Name Only' and it's just my take on things - I don't seek to impose my views on those who may see it differently, as many will do. I think that with social meda and what not, it's largely become a hobby that old men used to engage in in their garden sheds before internet came along.
Waffled, dribbled and opined Yorkie (sounding too much like an old man on a 'virtual park bench'!)
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
