[ETS/PARC List] KB6NU's Column for April 2016 - I'm Extra Ignorant

[E. Drew Moore]

Subject: KB6NU's Column for April 2016 - I'm Extra Ignorant


Hi, folks:

Here's my column for April. This column is going out to 385 clubs. We 
should hit 400 soon!

73, Dan KB6NU


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I'm EXTRA Ignorant

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

On Sunday, I received the following e-mail from a reader:

"Just wanted to let you know I passed the General exam using your study 
guide.  It was very helpful.  I am now generally ignorant whereas before 
I was only technically ignorant.  Ha!"

My reply to him was:

"Well, if you're generally  ignorant, I guess that makes me EXTRA 
ignorant!"

This isn't just a joke--being ignorant is part of the hobby. Amateur 
radio operators will always be ignorant about something or other. Even 
if you could master every facet of the hobby at some point in time, your 
mastery would be short-lived as the technology continued to advance.

Over the course of my amateur radio career, we've gone from equipment 
that primarily used vacuum tubes, to solid-state gear that first used 
discrete transistors and then integrated circuits, to software-defined 
radios. I could have, at some point, simply given up on the new 
technology and still enjoyed amateur radio. Some guys do that, and 
that's OK. It is only a hobby after all.

I'm not one of those guys, though, and if you're not one of those guys, 
then you have to resign yourself to being ignorant. But, that's a good 
thing, as long as you realize that you're ignorant. Realizing that 
you're ignorant will spur you on to learn new things and accept new 
challenges.

Recently, I realized that I'm mostly ignorant about satellite operation. 
I know some of the basics from having read articles and writing about 
the topic in my study guides, but I have never made a contact using a 
satellite. I think that might be one of my next challenges. With the 
advent of CubeSat, there are many new satellites up in the air and many 
more opportunities to have interesting contacts.

So, what are you ignorant about? By that I mean, of course, what's going 
to be your next challenge in amateur radio?

==================================

When he's not challenging himself with new things, Dan falls back on 
something he knows pretty well--operating CW. You'll find him mainly on 
the 80m, 40m, and 30m bands. Dan is the author of the "No Nonsense" 
amateur radio license study guides, and blogs about amateur radio at 
KB6NU.Com, and you can contact him by e-mailing cwgeek at kb6nu.com.

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