[Elecraft] Wayne's Story - "On Second Thought, I'll Take The Stairs"

[Jim Rhodes]

The truly great thing about amateur radio is that there are so very many
things that an operator can do. Since I retired and downsized to an
apartment with no tower or beam in an urban environment I find myself using
those very weak signal modes. Still have the KPA500 and KAT500, but using
that kind of power in an apartment is just not "neighbor friendly" so I am
saving them in case I decide to move back to a less congested area or find
a place I can set up a remote station. In the mean time there are those
digital modes that I can get on and make some Qs on. Please do not
denigrate these modes because there are a lot of people in similar
situations. Yes, I would love to crank up the juice, spin the beam around
and pound the green keys in plain old RTTY, but it just ain't happening
right now. So let me make a few Qs now and then and remember when I had a
"real ham station" making "real contacts". And if you don't like it I don't
give a (insert your least favorite term here) what you think. Have a nice
day.

On Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 18:54 Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT <
KX3.3 at coldrockshotbrooms.com> wrote:

> Yeah, great, reliable at or below the noise floor, but if all you're
> doing is meeting the somewhat arbitrary minimum that defines a QSO,
> what's the point?
>
> I mean seriously, can you even ask about the weather?  Just say "hi?"
>
> Meh.
>
> I'm fine with typing, but I want a real live person typing back, and if
> we can type back and forth for an hour, that's great.
>
> 73 -- Lynn
>
> On 7/12/20 2:33 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
> > The argument for digital modes like FT8 is that they're reliable at or
> below the noise floor, making it possible to work lots of DX even if solar
> conditions are very poor. Simplicity of protocol is a side effect of this
> design.
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