[chirp_users] chirp_users Digest, Vol 111, Issue 15

[Brandon Clark]

Not to interrupt this fascinating discussion on who owns csv files, but to
get back to the point . . .
As one respondent correctly pointed out, ham radio is supposed to require
some technical attitude. I think that's true, and that it is a good thing
for the hobby. However, my opinion is that the difficulty of interfacing
with and programming radios exists because the process is fundamentally
overcomplicated and cumbersome, not because it requires more skill than
some hams have. It's just a bad model for how to accomplish the process,
and we all know it hurts the hobby by discouraging new hams.
By comparison, I could buy a $50 burner phone and a $5 USB cord and
interface that phone with any modern computer system to transfer data. Plug
and play. Middle school kids build $30 raspberry pi systems that log
weather, track motion, and do all kinds of cool things. But to program a
$1,000 radio I have to search eBay for a cable, locate drivers somewhere in
the bowels of the internet, and then download an image from the device.
Honestly ask yourself this, if you had to do all these steps in order to
get music downloaded on your phone how many people would just say, "heck
no, it isn't worth it!" Probably a lot.
Ham radio is all about finding challenges; that's true. But if the hobby is
going to survive long term there has to be accessible avenues to at least
get started in the hobby. HT and mobile rigs can't be using 80's tech
forever, or it will make us look like dinosaurs, and keep new hams away.
Let them build radios from kits, terminate cables, and make homebrew vacuum
tubes from bubble gum and shot glasses when they get more advanced.
Brandon
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