[Boatanchors] The Silence of the Bands

[Michael Poteet]

I expect that most people 35 years of age and younger are decent (if not
skilled) typists after years of keyboarding on computers at home and at
school.  And they are certainly used to communicating via typed messages.
Perhaps we should urge the ARRL to approach the FCC to open the Novice/Tech
frequencies on 15, 40 and 80 meters to digital modes.  These bands would
provide the opportunity to engage in interesting contacts any hour of the
day, any month in the year unlike the other Novice/Tech frequencies.  This
may be a way to bring new people into the Hobby and, more importantly, keep
them in the Hobby.  

It also might give the ARRL OO people (if that group still exists) something
really worthwhile to do; I can imagine a bit of chaos (at first).  :)



Mike    W5FTD




> -----Original Message-----
> From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:boatanchors-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of B Farrell
> Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2017 10:56
> To: Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] The Silence of the Bands
> 
> Bob,
> 
> That's an interesting observation about repeaters.  Here in the greater
> Washington, DC area there must be around 50 repeaters on the various VHF
> & UHF bands but mostly 2 meters and from my perspective there is little
> activity heard outside the few club weekly nets.  While the availability
> of so many repeaters would seem to be a good thing for emergencies I
> suspect that the pool of hams who are monitoring are so spread out among
> the many repeaters that few transmissions or conversations occur outside
> net times.
> 
> I think there is a decline in retention of new hams who get their Tech
> licenses perhaps because they lose interest.  The ARRL's answer is to
> occasionally pursue license restructuring or band refarming. But the
> League mucking about in the regulatory process has never solved the
> problem.
> 
> Brad K4RT