[AMRadio] what is this????

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 12:12 AM, Larry D Barr <k5wlf at rebelwolf.com> wrote:
> Damn, Jim. Don't give up on posting to the list just 'cause a thread ran
> rampant. All you can do is throw an idea out there. You've got no
> control over what folks do with it. Keep posting. Life is good.

That's true within the rules of the list and discretion of the
moderators, Larry. It's the job of the moderators to bring things back
to a move even keel when folks start to wander too far off point
and/or make things personal. And being one of the moderators, I doubt
you have to worry about Jim giving up on posting anytime soon.

The topic of CB comes up from time to time in one form or another and
generally brings the same results: a few who detest anything related
to CB and a few who have a better image of the service. One thing to
keep in mind going forward is that, like amateur radio, it is also a
radio *service* and as such, is no better or worse than any other
service based on what it was meant to achieve. It's understandable
that those who choose to condemn the service, it's equipment,
everything - lock, stock, and barrel - based on bad behavior of some
of its users could be seen as elitists. It's kind of like blaming guns
for killing people or blaming pencils for misspelled words. And
besides - we have MORE than a few bad examples on the amateur bands
who have the same potential to make the rest of us look equally
stupid, merely by association. And it certainly isn't mode-specific,
as much as we might like to believe otherwise.

Citizens Band Radio was pretty much the internet of its day, a world
wide phenomenon. The amateur bands benefited from it greatly when
thousands exposed to CB chose to upgrade. Did we also gain some idiots
and troublemakers? Sure. But it's not like they didn't exist before.
Callsigns like WA4D, KV4FZ and plenty of others come to mind. And
today is no different than it was in days of yor. Go back and read
some of the ancient columns in QST from the 30s about wild parties and
drunken behavior on the air, poor operating habits and so on.

I'd bet that most folks who make negative remarks about CB that come
off as elitist really just mean "I choose not to act like that" or
"wouldn't be caught dead associating myself with that kind of
nonsense" in reference to the 'good buddy' aspects of the service. It
would be no different than judging all AMers and SSBers by what you
can hear taking place most nights between 3870 - 3892. It's difficult
to blame a radio for what some nitwit behind the mic chooses to do
with it.

Still, it's a bit amusing to tune around on a receiver to find 11m
roaring with heterodynes when the band is in and 10m pretty much
devoid of activity. It's still a shadow of the activity it saw in the
60s-70s and most days 11m is as dead as your average amateur band, at
least as far as AM activity. Maybe it's come full circle, with more
and more AMers choosing to spend their time on the internet of their
day.


~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4