[chirp_users] chirp_users Digest, Vol 111, Issue 15

[Trevor Holyoak]

It actually used to be that hard to get music on a device. It's only 
been made easier because there is a critical mass willing to pay for it.

On 3/23/2018 2:59 PM, Brandon Clark wrote:
> 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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