[Elecraft] The State of Ham Radio

[Jim Brown]

Hi Jeff,

Like the rest of life, ham radio is different things to different 
people. I've been licensed since 9th grade, Extra since '59, and will 
turn 84 this fall. I've been on and off the air for decades at a time 
having a life, running my own small biz.

For me, ham radio has been CW and RTTY contesting, a bit of DX chasing, 
and a lot of station-building. Along the way, I've done a lot of study 
to learn more, and a lot of writing to share it. Just as those who 
helped the 14-year me. It's about studying propagation, using what I've 
learned to facilitate contesting and DXing. It's about learning more 
about how antennas work. Helping others figure out which will work best 
for them in their real estate allows. Ragchewing has no attraction for 
me -- I find the internet far more useful in meeting and interacting 
with people who I can't meet in person.

About ten years ago, I found the WSJT software that K1JT and his team 
have given us to combat the monstrous encroachment of all sorts of 
electronically generated noise that makes most of us deaf. I've used it 
extensively for it's intended purpose -- making QSOs over difficult 
paths -- like working through the noise on both ends of the QSO. I've 
mostly used it on 6M, 160M, and 60M. But I've yet to get the bug for 
WSJT contesting. FT8 effectively multiplies our transmitter power by 100 
as compared to SSB, by 10 compared to CW with great CW ops on both ends 
of the QSO.

73, Jim K9YC

On 8/31/2025 1:05 PM, Jeff Cook via Elecraft wrote:
> I’m three years into my General, clicked over to 65 yrs this year. Main expectations were to communicate with people around the world. But my time so far has been local club repeater nets, and only accumulating HF & CW gear that I still haven’t really touched.
> 
> My disappointments with the state of the hobby (as I’ve experience so far) are the emphasis on snatching contacts, and logging contacts (and re-re-logging contacts), chasing awards, and the de-emphasis on DX and ragchews. Smoke em if you got em, they’re just not my own reasons for getting into this.
> 
> My surprise at the prevalence of FT8, and yes POTA, is not in what it takes to make a contact, but that they end at the contact itself, off to the next dozen. Again, just looking at what’s different from what I was looking for.
> 
> I’ve got DX and CW in my future, but I keep hearing how dead SSB is and that doesn’t give me confidence for my long-term future with it.