[Elecraft] An interested link

[David Gilbert]

Brett Gazdzinski wrote:


N2DTS:  "I don't understand why some people like to limit other peoples 
activity, or choices."

AB7E:   So it's OK for me to hold a keg party on the street in front of 
your house late at night?    It isn't about arbitrarily wanting to limit 
the activities of the wide-band ESSB folks ... it's about not wanting 
the activities of the wide-band ESSB folks to arbitrarily limit the 
number of hams who can enjoy themselves on the relatively narrow HF bands.



N2DTS:  "It seems to me like there is very little important 
communication going on in ham radio, so why stress the narrow bandwidth? 
Would it block some critical or important communication?"

AB7E:   There is relatively little "important" communication going on at 
all in ham radio, and that applies at least as much to the wide-band 
ESSB folks.  How "important" is it to spend an hour critiquing that last 
0.1 db of voice frequency response below 50 Hz?  The issue isn't the 
importance of the content ... the issue is the right to reasonable 
opportunity to express it.



N2DTS: "Ham radio just seems like a bunch of people who enjoy fooling 
with radio
equipment, so why not just let them fool with it?"

AB7E:   While ESSB has endured scorn from mainstream hams for some time, 
it really wasn't too much of an issue while their experiments (and their 
splatter) were held to rather few frequencies that everyone else could 
generally manage to avoid.  Now that ESSB has found a way to take up 
even more space with wide bandwidths and its practitioners are openly 
advocating operation anywhere on the HF bands, it has become a totally 
different issue.  If your upwind neighbor enjoyed burning tires in his 
back yard, would you be inclined to "just let him fool with it"?



N2DTS:   "There are other modes much narrower than ssb, why not not ban 
ssb as wasting spectrum?

AB7E:   There aren't any practical VOICE modes narrower than SSB.  FCC 
regulations and common-use band plans try to provide room for everyone 
to enjoy the hobby without unduly infringing on others right to do the 
same.  Wide-band ESSB is like insisting on wearing a big hat in a 
crowded movie.



N2DTS: "I am not fond of RTTY, or slow scan TV, or ssb, or many other
things other hams do, but the last thing I would want to do is restrict
something that others find enjoyable."

AB7E:   So why not open up the HF bands to wide-band FM?


I have no problem at all with people using the K3 for clean ESSB when 
the band activity allows it.  I do have a problem with people using ESSB 
on any rig when the bands are crowded, and I have a significant problem 
with people extending ESSB to ridiculous bandwidths like 6 KHz and 
beyond, and I have a huge problem with people generating splatter by 
pushing a rig that can't handle it to ESSB bandwidths.

Dave   AB7E