[Boatanchors] Radio Shack

[Ray Friess]

I would wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment.   The "expensive" 
boatanchors didnt deter me or any fellow hams that I came up through the 
ranks with.   Many of us drooled over catalogs and dreamed of owning 
such rigs as those you mention... and we were often found in radio 
stores "fondling" such rigs and twisting the knobs...

We couldnt afford the Collins, etc ... so we saved and begged and 
borrowed the Heathkit dx 40s, the
Knightkit t-60s and other rigs so that we could get on the air.   Some 
of my fondest memories are from
being a Novice and working hard for those contacts with gear such as that...

What has led to the current state of affairs is the FCC and its constant 
deregulating.   Downgrading requirements to get a license so that, now, 
you have to know next to nothing to get a license.   And, because you 
have to know next to nothing about theory or the code, one, naturally, 
couldnt build anything, and has no interest in building anything.   That 
is followed by the inclination to want to "plug n play" when it comes to 
getting on the air.    Go out and buy a rig, put up an antenna 
(commercially built too) and away you go.   Not to take anything away 
(not much anyway) from the new rigs .... many newbies wouldnt know how 
to tune an antenna if they had to because of the automatic tuners and 
because the new rigs dont have any way to tune the final anyway....     
TRUE "plug n play"....

I detected no decline in interest because of the Collins or WRL or any 
of those rigs coming on the market.
The REAL decline began with deregulation ... all in the name of "saving" 
the hobby.   Well, we and the FCC have almost "saved" the hobby into 
irrelevance.   We have to fight harder to get respect from public 
agencies and officials when it comes to helping in emergencies .... we 
have a MARS system made up of brass who couldnt care less about the 
system and actually wish they could find a politically acceptable way of 
killing the system (yes, I'm a member of MARS, although more and more I 
am wondering why)... and we have operators who think all they would have 
to do is "push to talk" in an emergency with no idea of what to say or 
how to say it when the time comes.

Throw in the internet, cell phones and other ways of communicating that 
have added further body blows and we have what we have.   I cant even 
interest my own son or grandson in ham radio..   When I mention that I 
have talked to someone in some foreign country, their reactions are ... 
"So what.  I can do that on the internet anytime" and "dad, your 
antennas make the house look like a dumb airport control tower"... and 
they roll their eyes...



Bob Wilder wrote:

> Have been reading this thread with interest.  I think the beginning of 
> the end of the "ham Radio" store started when the FCC dropped the 
> requirements of drawing and labeling a schematic of a simple CW 
> transmitter, for  the Class B ticket and the same with audio  for the 
> Class S ticket. Most of the rigs on the market were to expensive for 
> all of us.  We could only afford to build our own rigs The next step 
> was the WW2 surplus  cheap receivers.  WE came full circle back to the 
> 75A, 32V, WRL, with equipment for the eager young ham costing too 
> much, interest began to fall.
> I guess what I trying to say is we bought on our selves.
>
> Bob Wilder
> 6032 Idlemoore Court
> Theodore, AL 36582-4117
> 251-653-5274
> http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-af2hd [Not working]
> Asst USAF State MARS Director- Alabama
> Alabama State Training Director
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