[Elecraft] A Feature I'd like to see

[Julian, G4ILO]

I've never written anything that clever (though I've thought about it) but
for me the interest in doing something like that is in developing the
program. It's the same reason others enjoy home-brewing, I think, but a
more rewarding activity for those who have greater programming skills than
they do in electronics. It's only destroying the magic of the hobby for
those who just want to buy the ready-to-use piece of software and use it.

I don't know where you draw the line though. Few people (including me) have
the time to develop anything like PSK31 software. And DX Clusters probably
seemed a good idea to the guys who developed them, but to me they are
destroying the hobby by removing the need to understand propagation
conditions, to spend time listening and tuning and the element of sheer
luck involved in working DX.

73,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, K2 #392)
Homepage: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo

Tree N6TR <tree@kkn.net> wrote:

About 16 years ago (wow - it's been that long), I developed a program using

a Z80 to operated the Field Day on its own.  It was exciting watching it
work people.  Later, the same technology was used to be an operator
assistant
in the Sweepstakes "bird-dogging" for a VE8 or VY1.  I found one before it 
did, but it did print out everything it heard to a CRT and it was nice to
see
how people were doing on a different band than the one I was one.

With today's DSP technology, it might be possible to out perform the human
hear (or most human's ears).  I actually think it will be a sad day for 
ham radio if this technology becomes too widespread.  Small steps can take
you from having a band-scope, to having a display of what is being sent on
many frequencies and finally just making this look like a web chat room.  

For me, that would really ruin the magic of radio as my brain will be too
far away from putting on the headphones.