[Elecraft] Skimmer and the K3S

[Bill Frantz]

Peter - Thanks for your comments. I knew that ham radio was a 
very big tent, but I didn't know that building a station was a 
goal in and of itself for some hams. My view of the tent has 
gotten bigger.

I'm a bit blind in the area of automatic radio. I've never run 
CWSkimmer. I don't know of any similar program for voice modes. 
My interests are mostly in emergency services and building 
equipment and using it on the air. I also get a lot of pleasure 
in club contesting at events like field day and CQP. I chase DX 
"because it's there" and working through a pileup with 100W and 
wire antennas is a challenge.

Because of my emergency service interest, I tend to avoid the JT 
modes because they can't be used to send complex messages like, 
"We need 5 units of type O+ blood." Emergency preparedness makes 
me want to be able to send and receive CW without a computer 
because CW gives me the best chance of cobbling something 
together when "the bad thing" really happens.

As far as building equipment goes, I figure that hams can be 
sorted into these groups:

  People who buy equipment to build a station

  People who buy kits to build a station.

  People who build circuits from books/magazines to build a station

  People who design their own equipment to build a station

All of these are legitimate parts of the hobby.

I have a foot in at least every category. I have bought radios 
for my cars. I have built radio kits for general use. I have 
built circuits from books, and I have designed my own automatic 
antenna switch controller and built it from scratch. The people 
I am in total awe of are the ones that design and build their 
own transceivers. Thank, Wayne and Eric and the rest at Elecraft 
for sharing your designs.

73 Bill AE6JV

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Bill Frantz        | Security is like Government  | Periwinkle
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