AMRAD discussion and challenge

wb4jfi at knology.net wb4jfi at knology.net
Mon May 6 19:34:59 CDT 2013 

Some great observations and suggestions Alex.  I think the major issue is 
who would do the work on the expanded AMRAD Internet web presence.
Wikis, Facebook, Youtubes, and YES, even electronic payment of dues, would 
all be positive steps.

As I failed before in keeping the printed newsletter running on time, I will 
take myself out of these plans, other as an occasional contributor.  But, 
someone does need to do what you suggest.
Terry, WB4JFI


-----Original Message----- 
From: Alex Fraser
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2013 5:36 PM
To: tacos at amrad.org
Subject: Re: AMRAD discussion and challenge

Good topic.  I have some thoughts.

First an analysis`,`,`~+

     DC area, federal money, contractors, military, hoards of talented
engineers some linked by a common like for amateur radio and finding
each other with a 2 meter repeater.  I would have been surprised if they
hadn't come up with some good idea/projects.   The area was growing in
the 70's~80's but wasn't crazy manic like it is today.  Getting together
was fairly easy and driving only an occasional problem.  I live in
Woodbridge and it is only 20 miles by road to Tippy's but that is 40
miles round trip in DC traffic on Saturday, which these days ain't a
pleasure ride.

     I'm originally from Baltimore and that is where I became a ham. I
was a member of BRATS and active on the repeater.  Baltimore is close
enough to DC to be affected and there were many engineers in the club.
We did technical stuff and it was fun.  People of course knew of AMRAD
and to me it seemed more than a geographically located ham radio club.
It also seemed to be a techie mecca and a bit exotic so when I came to
live in Silver Spring in the  80's I sought AMRAD out.  I used to do
packet into the AMRAD digipeater and for that matter downloaded my
packet software off of the dial up BBS. My experience with AMRAD has
always been through computer telecommunications!

     So here we are in the present (well I hope so, please no comments
from the Quantumnista...).   It is a bit harder to get around.  People
have aged and the traffic is horrible.  We have people in the club from
far away places like South Carolina, England and Woodbridge.  The
internet has exploded.  There are world wide hobbies based on websites,
a total acceptance of virtual community and odd combo of a shrinking
world, yet where places seem harder to get to.  There have been
discussions on this list over the years about it's format. Let's see,
where to place your quote, ASCII text only, no HTML and so on.  I think
this is very odd.  I have the feeling that one reason for this is
similar to a reason  people used on keeping the Morse code as a
requirement to being a ham, that being it restricts access or more to
the point "keeps out the riff raff".  People's expectations have changed
on what they expect from telecommunications.  They expect a feeling of
virtual community, they take for granted all the bells and whistles,
like file storage and retrieval, auto linking and inclusion of non text
elements (video, imagery etc.).

Now some thoughts on what to do`,`,`~+

     Ham radio is about electronic communication.  Oh yes in particular
radio communication, but I want to emphasize the communication part
because it puts us in a good position in this tech crazy world.  Imagine
the role of ham radio morphing into a net control for technical
hobbyists.  We could be technical aggregators.  I think hams in many
ways already are in that role, so it would only be a matter of saying it
loud and saying it proud.

     What would this involve?
         We would have to redo the AMRAD web presence.

             -AMRAD should have a Facebook presence.

             -AMRAD should have a Youtube presence.

             -The AMRAD website is very good, but it lacks a forum and a
wiki.  I realize this would be a lot of work and take a while.  The
organization would have                 to make it a priority for the
next couple of years.  People would have to be recruited, trained or
whatever to maintain the site.  Once you got a good
forum  going, dump the Facebook.   Keep the Youtube for the free bandwidth.

           Remember folks "A virtual trip of a thousand miles begins
with the first click".

On 5/4/2013 2:44 PM, wb4jfi at knology.net wrote:
> Lest my email from last night be taken wrong, I did not mean to go after 
> Andre personally, and if it reads that way, I apologize to him.  I think 
> that I an still somewhat in shock at the death of Dave Borden, K8MMO, and 
> I have recently been recalling our collective times together working on 
> AMRAD projects.  I miss those times of having a group within AMRAD that 
> worked together on significant projects.
>
> You see, Dave was one of the early pioneers and contributors of AMRAD.  We 
> used to retire to Dave's QTH after Saturday taco sessions (which started 
> as pizza sessions at Tysons Corner BTW), and work on whatever project we 
> were into at the moment.  Then, throughout the week we would often discuss 
> progress on the local AMRAD repeater.  We have had many long-term 
> projects: computerized bulletin boards, ASCII over the air, packet radio, 
> DSP, seismographs, spread spectrum, LF, to name a few.  We even built a 
> WORKING SATELLITE!  If it wasn't for the digipeater function WE built into 
> AX.25, APRS would not be what it is.
>
> As time moved on, the repeater became less of a glue.  Projects dwindled. 
> When the tacos email reflector came about, it seemed to be a global 
> replacement for the repeater.  Aha, now we can easily connect hams outside 
> our area to work on current projects.  But not long ago, when the IRLP 
> link was still working, the only person that I regularly found on the 
> repeater was Sandy.  And the tacos reflector no longer carries very much 
> project "meat".
>
> Over the last few years, it seems like AMRAD has become less interested in 
> advancing amateur radio technology, and more on doing "simpler" things. 
> Maybe I am misreading this, but I think not.  Even when I was still in DC, 
> the weekly tacos sessions were less about what we were working on.  Now, 
> most of what I see about AMRADers projects is via the mailed newsletter 
> and the tacos email reflector.  And that's individual, simpler things. 
> There hasn't been a cohesive "group" project in the past several years.
>
> I have tried to develop interest in a few group projects over the last few 
> years, such as SDRs.  At first there was interest, such as in the 
> Charleston SDR receiver, but that faded out.  SDRs are too difficult 
> and/or complicated.  DSP is too difficult.  Linux is too complicated. 
> Mesh networking is too difficult.  These new-fangled microcontroller 
> boards are too hard to learn.  Never mind what new, inventive things these 
> boards could let us accomplish.  IT'S TOO DARN HARD.  Instead, let's 
> recreate things that were done ten to forty years ago.  Hence, my comments 
> about dumbing-down things.
>
> Recently, I've seen on tacos:
> A couple of hams using Arduinos.
> A couple of hams interested in Digital Voice.
> A couple of hams somewhat interested in mesh networking.
> A couple of hams interested in EME.
> Maybe one or two other individual projects.  That's it.
>
> I have heard rumors of people working on more Arduino stuff, people 
> playing with FPGAs, people playing with cheap SDRs (DVB-T tuners).  I see 
> almost nothing about them on tacos.  So, my FIRST CHALLENGE (and positive 
> spin here) is:  Let's start at least letting others know what you are 
> working on here on the tacos reflector.
>
> My SECOND CHALLENGE is to see if there is a group project or projects that 
> can once more bind AMRAD into a somewhat less unidentifiable group, 
> working toward improving amateur radio technology.  It does not have to be 
> a cold fusion reactor.
>
> Maybe, like the college football jock that misses his "better" youth, I am 
> missing what I perceive that we once had.  But, I think not.  I still 
> enjoy learning, experimenting, building, and testing "radio stuff", and I 
> miss doing that with like-minded others.
>
> I still design and build things, such as based on SDRs, Arduinos, Pis, 
> etc.. Mel and I have a dozen or so mesh-network nodes here in Charleston. 
> Being retired, I have a more limited budget these days.  But within that, 
> I'm willing to invest in other projects that fellow AMRADers might be 
> interested in becoming involved with.
>
> I hope this clarifies where I am coming from.  I want AMRAD to still be 
> relevant, and fulfill its stated mission.
> 73,
> Terry, WB4JFI
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tacos mailing list
> Tacos at amrad.org
> https://amrad.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos
>


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  ~~~********************Alex Fraser********************~~~
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