02-10-2023, 07:09 AM
Ten years later than the last post but I feel it applies even more so today. I do wonder if it is still possible today what I did in the years 1979 - 1983 and work over a 100 countries on CW with a Yaesu FT-7 on 20m with a simple folded dipole approximately 10m up in the air.
The only experimentation I see is with antenna's - most seem to be only appliance operators and even making an antenna tuner is outside their interests (or capabilities?).
I's a sad state of affairs when you hear something like "I cannot tune my antenna with my antenna tuner. Can I put the antenna tuner you have for sale in series with my antenna tuner and then be able to tune my antenna?"
And another one: "My power supply is only 10 Amps and my transceiver is 100 watts so in order to cope with the current I just put another 20 A power supply in parallel with the first one"....
Talking about power supplies: One HAM was causing a lot of splatter and when it was mentioned to him he then goes on how the persons reporting it are wrong, it is all caused by the receivers being hooked up to a switched mode power supply. (and one was just hooked up to a 12V battery and another had an older rig running on the mains...).
Having said this, there is the occasional smart HAM who's involved in leading edge stuff and/or does great stuff with programming. Unfortunately more the exception than the majority involved in experimenting and moved the boundaries forward.
I'm impressed by SDR and the spectrum display's, stuff I didn't even dream about forty years ago.
The only experimentation I see is with antenna's - most seem to be only appliance operators and even making an antenna tuner is outside their interests (or capabilities?).
I's a sad state of affairs when you hear something like "I cannot tune my antenna with my antenna tuner. Can I put the antenna tuner you have for sale in series with my antenna tuner and then be able to tune my antenna?"
And another one: "My power supply is only 10 Amps and my transceiver is 100 watts so in order to cope with the current I just put another 20 A power supply in parallel with the first one"....
Talking about power supplies: One HAM was causing a lot of splatter and when it was mentioned to him he then goes on how the persons reporting it are wrong, it is all caused by the receivers being hooked up to a switched mode power supply. (and one was just hooked up to a 12V battery and another had an older rig running on the mains...).
Having said this, there is the occasional smart HAM who's involved in leading edge stuff and/or does great stuff with programming. Unfortunately more the exception than the majority involved in experimenting and moved the boundaries forward.
I'm impressed by SDR and the spectrum display's, stuff I didn't even dream about forty years ago.
