[Boatanchors] SDR unit

[Rob Atkinson]

On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 7:02 AM, David Knepper <collinsradio at comcast.net> wrote:
> I wish that I had not been the instigator of this thread on SDR
>

What did you expect?  The name of the email list is _Boatanchors_.
Did you think a SDR rig would be discussed as if it were a SP-10 Super
Pro?

> However, I wonder how many "commentators" on this thread are still viewing a
> black and white television,  cooking with a wood stove, or hitchhiking to
> town?
>
> I suspect that no one under the age of 40 commented on SDR!
>
> Don't let time pass you by - get involved in your community, get a pastime
> job or just get out of the house and away from the keyboard!
>

You miss the point.  My hobby isn't watching TV, cooking or hiking (I
don't even do any of those things).   My hobby is ham radio.  To that
end, I aspire to understand how radio works and my ambition is to be
able to understand and repair my transmitting and receiving equipment.
  I think that is a worthy goal and I also think it should be the goal
of every ham, especially every ham who desires to advance beyond the
level of appliance consumer.   I find the easiest path to this is the
operation of vintage gear.   I have nothing against the modern SDR
gear in theory, and apparently a few hams such as Pete CWA and John
W3JN can work on that equipment which is to their credit, but the vast
majority seem to be challenged and make no attempt to even try.
This is leading to the creeping slopbucketization of AM, something
which sadly, has already happened to CW, with operators of plastic
radios there reporting being "QRT, because my rig had to go off to the
shop."

This is all fine and dandy for the ham radio Establishment, namely
ARRL, CQ, FCC and others who either regulate or profit from ham radio
because it is in their best interest to have a ham population of money
spending consumers who keep buying brand new plug and play gear that
can be made idiot proof so the hams are all kept in line and out of
trouble, dependent on the priesthood of professional techs and
manufacturers.

We can all scarf up all the latest SMT 200 pin chip gear but when
we're all eventually like the rest of ham radio, running what amount
to being black boxes having no idea how they work, and throwing away
broken boxes because they don't power up, then we will be
indistinguishable from a completely non-technical consumer who does
his shopping at Best Buy and that will be a very sad day in my
opinion.   I left those modes that had the knowledge engineered out of
them with their cell-phone level ham rigs precisely that reason.   I
have no intention of not saying what I think about it and stand by
letting that happen to AM.

I do not discourage the operation of that gear; I discourage the
operation of it _exclusively_ with nothing more than an operator
understanding of radio.  Everyone including me, has a few or a lot of
solid state gear we probably can't fix, except for simple problems.
In fact, I plan to add modern or relatively modern digital displays to
a couple of 1940s receivers here (don't worry--they'll be in external
cabinets).  But on a reflector called "Boatanchors" expect the topic
of SDR to generate a variety of points of view.  If this is a problem
I advise bringing up your topic on the SDR email list in addition to
this one.

73

Rob
K5UJ