Geeze, Rick ... now you sound ... well... kinda OLD ... ;-) ;-)
Modern hams have moved beyond the crystal radio and (as someone on this
list says) building a kit without experimenting is just solder practice.
What was fun for you may not be fun for other hams. Stuff changes and
it is neither good nor bad... just different. I don't want to build my
grandfather's radio kit - I want to build the future of radio. Look at
all the computer programming that is going on in ham radio. Would
anyone suggest we go back to when we did not have computers? I think
of N8LP who builds complex power meters and panadapters, and who will
(someday) will release the very complex and capable LP-500 station
monitor - very advanced stuff unavailable just a years ago.
I had lunch yesterday with one of the local guys, a German guy actually
(ref Bad Friedeburg,) who, invented and builds interface boards and
Android apps which decode digital modes on Android smart phones and
tablets. He was featured on the cover of QST last year. He was decoding
something right at the lunch table! Very cool. He is having a ball -
but if we adopt your take, I suppose he should be reinventing the wheel
by building a crystal set or an old Heathkit power meters kit, instead.
Other local guys are building a remotely controlled station, with
remotely controlled antenna switches and lots more, because they are
condo dwellers who want to operate in the country. The gear is located
on a farm owned by one of their sons. Why rain on their parade just
because you are nostalgic for YOUR good old days? One of them built an
Arduino based "fox box" to hide during fox hunts, with vastly more
capabilities than we have on the PIC based fox controllers. It seems
kinda of parochial to say they are not having as much fun as you did
with your first kit. These things are way more sophisticated than you
allow, and can do so much more.
No one is selling the past short... but hams are moving on. I don't
think we can stop it! Many hams don't wanna play they way their like
Grandpas played. Perhaps, you are selling the future short. Nostalgia
is for old guys who don't wanna keep up !! ;-) ;-)
Remember, as N1KPR says, "It's all good."
--------------------------K8JHR --------------------------
On 11/1/2014 6:44 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
"there is no better time to be a radio UI homebrewer"
Oh, I do not agree with that!
I agree it is a good thing that people continue to home brew anything at
all, but I can't see how the thrill of programming a computer board or radio
that they bought can compare with the thrill of hearing that first radio
station when I built my first crystal radio in 1958, cat-whisker and all.
I don't want to take anything away from the people participating in the
makers movement, but let's not sell the past too short either. These makers
could still build their own radio today if they wanted to. They have other
interests.
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