We are the same age and we have seen the same progression of technology. I would argue that some of it is analagous to amateur radio. BBSes and some aspects of the Internet are very much in the spirit of ham radio. These are technologies that people used for communications and where people experimented as amateurs rather than as professionals. Just as radio amateurs created their own networks of repeaters, people setup networks of BBSes (e.g. relaying between BBSes or wiring LANs).
I think that amateur radio faultered when it became more like online service providers or the modern web: people continued to use what was there, but it stagnated since few were experimenting and few were interested in creating infrastructure.
I also see that attitude leaking into our online world. Consider something like Gemini. Some people experiment with it (as either developers or for communicating with others), which is very much in the spirit of ham radio. Yet there are also numerous naysayers, those who see their fancy new rigs (or web browsers) as being the only true measure of progress even though they can only partake in that world as the modern version of a ragchewer.
There's underground digital radio FOSS but no way to do it legally. Slow going because of NDA.
Disagree. Digital radio yes, but that's "just digitial". Analog radio is a dinosaur.
Under 43 here as well as someone involved in the retro scene. HAM stuff was never a retro for me, however I have consider looking into it when I developed an interest in RF based computer networks (my interest originated with modern tech). As someone who undereducated as fuck it seems like a decent way to build some of the base knowledge that I don’t have. I just haven’t got around to looking into it much.
> Heck... telephony technologies are now considered retro!
heh my most recent retro deep dive has been into ISDN.
I actually tried to get a landline. Only thing available was a a DOCSIS modem for encapsulating VoIP traffic.
And yet, the landlines still exist, fully built out right to the homes they serve. They're owned by (in theory) the US public which paid to construct that entire network. Because of the years of use and the need for universal service, it's still the most extensive network infrastructure that exists in the US, period.
But access to them has been closed off by corporations who don't want competition and don't have a problem paying to get the laws in the US changed to suit their profits.
They don't sell ordinary copper land lines themselves any more because selling such a cheap product would compete with their higher priced "low end" offerings.
They don't let anyone else use the POTS network because that would also compete with them. You can transmit a lot of data over a plain old pair of copper wires point to point, can't have anyone but the phone companies doing that because it would "cause problems" for the POTS network.
They've claimed monopolies almost everywhere, subsidies from the government and tax breaks from the states in exchange for providing "internet access" to places that don't have good connections, like rural areas.
There's no one else the country can ask to do that sort of thing because they fight against allowing anyone else access to the network, yet whenever they're asked to produce, they claim they need to be given more money. Wait a few years and repeat, over and over.
Telecommunications companies in the US are some of the most corrupt organizations that exist. It's astonishing that people ignore them as long as they have good cell signal.
It also may be that when I 14-18 was a transformational time for the technology of computer communication. It was exciting.
Maybe that excitement isn't there for people who are "always online".
> heh my most recent retro deep dive has been into ISDN.
Do you consider ISDN separate from telephony or part of it?
It’s kinda of weird. I consider it telephony for sure (half of the TE’s I have are phones and a lot of equipment is T1/E1 equipment for PRI lines) but I also consider it under early computer data networks as it could carry X.25, Frame Relay and other types of traffic. It predates my time using computers a bit, but I believe it was also used for internet connections as uncommon as it was here.
Never got too far into X 25, I spent a couple nights after work cruising the network and finding all sorts of stuff that looked like it was on the same level of security.
people are already making their own cell networks, so not sure what's next :)
Problem same. It is not the technology it is the restriction. You use a common pool of radio which is shared. Regulation and rules of engagement abounded.
Still it is better than just radio station as ham is 2 way (and n way based on 2 way). It is a bit decentralised. But read last paragraph. Totalitarian state would not like it.)
Do I want my casual conversations going into some historical record?
Probably not.
Testing is also a bother. I support testing, mind you, but so much of this is memorizing factoids. "What segment of the 20-meter band is most often used for digital transmissions (avoiding the DX propagation beacons)? (A) 14.000 - 14.050 MHz (B) 14.070 - 14.112 MHz (C) 14.150 - 14.225 MHz (D) 14.275 - 14.350 MHz."
At least we finally got rid of Morse Code.
And aside from that, the authorized modes of transmission aren't that interesting anymore. I'd enjoy experimenting with things like spread spectrum, or similar types of innovative things. Building an SSB radio in 2021 seems archaic.
I also think you could maintain the spirit of ham radio with encryption. It kind of depends on how it's done. If I establish an encrypted connection to a stranger on the waves, and I'm using the connection to peddle commercial goods, if I do it enough times, someone will report me.
There's also the issue of security when interacting with anything digital. I don't mind remotely controlling equipment in the clear, perhaps, but I do mind if strangers can commandeer it. Signing is good enough for that, but encryption is better. A lot of things I'd like to do -- if I were experimenting with radio -- I don't want hacked.
HAM as in radio operators clubs, sure. But SDR and other adjacent ideas are doing relatively well with younger people. Especially with rtl-sdr providing a really cheap entry point.
But the whole official HAM environment and exams? Meh... I made some antennas to catch local device broadcasts and satellite transmissions, but I'm not interested in the classic stuff.
My experience with him was that he'd go on nightly, or semi-nightly, and meet virtually with other HAM radio operators.
He wanted me to take a HAM test, but by the time I was at an age that would have been appropriate, there were other technologies emerging such as BBSes, online service providers (Compuserv, Prodigy and AOL), and then later the Internet.
These technologies were so exciting to me, and I am sure that had they existed when my grandfather had started out, he would have used them instead of HAM radio, as for him it was about the socializing and connection.
For those younger than me (43), I imagine that HAM radio has an appeal as a retro technology, but not much else. One can't even transmit encrypted data across it legally, limiting even basic data transmission technology.
This isn't so say that there isn't a part of me that's nostalgic for sitting on my grandfather's lap watching him tune the dials and adjust the glowing meters, but even for someone as middle aged as me, HAM radio was more of a nostalgia technology.
You're also right about the younger folks finding many HAM operators to be curmudgeony. They're protective and can be somewhat elitist, with a high degree of friction (time, energy and cost) to even begin in the hobby, a smart kid who wants to tinker can find more welcoming hobbies.
Heck... telephony technologies are now considered retro! Many kids today have grown up without a landline in their home.