Tuesday night tech net

[Nan and Sandy Sanders]

For Tuesday technical net we will  ask participants opinions of the 
following question:
First,  can ham radio survive in the age of the Internet?  Second, is 
electronics too
complicated for home builders?

Here are some questions to get the discussion going:
1. Undeniably, the Internet has made a big dent in ham radio.  The question is
     how can ham radio survive in the age of the Internet?
2. Do you think there can be a happy melding of these two 
communications mediums or is one
destine to replace the other?
3. Do you think ham radio has unique activities that the Internet 
doesn't and visa-versa?
4. How would you explain to a newcomer where the dividing line is?
5. In natural disasters its common to locally loose internet access 
and cell phone connectivity too.
Does ham radio fit into this local disaster scenario and if so, where 
does internet connectivity meet up with it?
6. Newcomers to ham radio are rarely interested in communications, 
except SDR.  How would you persuade
a newcomer about the qualities of ham radio as opposed to the 
fascination of the Internet.?

The second question concerns our ability to construct at home 
projects.  Have the electronic components,
construction techniques and test equipment become too sophisticated, 
complex and expensive for
common hams to use in building equipment?

1. What has been your experience recently with constructing an ham 
radio project?
2. Is surface mount technique and flow soldering things that can be 
master at home?
3. Are printed board defunct?
4. Are things like FPGA and black box components requiring specialized 100-pin
sockets beyond out technical abilities??
5. What about test equipment?  Many components operate a clock speeds 
in the VHF or UHF
regions far outstripping the kind of test equipment hams 
traditionally owned.  Do you think
this fact prevents us from working with circuits of this type?
6. What skills does a ham need to build with these techniques?  Where 
does one get the
experience, not to mention the equipment to work at this level?
7. Of course, a few very motivated amateurs will train themselves but 
should we expect
that the average home builder will do so?    How does this compare to 
building in prior times?
After all there were specialized devices, techniques and equipment 
designed for special purposes
(microwaves come to mind) in past times too or is now different?

Tech Net meets every Tuesday (so far) at 8 PM  EST via 21/81 repeater 
in the NVA area or on echo link using
the W4CIA-R conference point.   Sandy WB5MMB is conference facilitator