Hey, cool! Positive press!

----- Forwarded message from Brian Murrey <[log in to unmask]> -----

To: "pigs" <[log in to unmask]>


 By Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press


 Jul. 7--Call them the original geeks.
Ham radio operators, the hobbyists who pioneered the communications mediums
 we now take for granted, are still pushing the envelope and still
 irritating neighbors who think -- usually in error -- that their unsightly
 antennas interfere with watching television.

But hams may be victims of the very modern-day communications they helped
 invent.

 The Federal Communications Commission, prodded by broadcasting and
 telecommunications companies, is jealously eyeing several chunks of ham
 radio frequencies to service the huge demand for in-car satellite radio
 broadcasts, as well as next-generation cellular telephone and wireless
 Internet services.
 "Everyone wants to reallocate ham bands," says Chris Imlay, general counsel
 for the American Radio Relay League, www.arrl.org. "But the amateur radio
 service uses those frequencies to produce a strong core of self-taught
 communications experts that have historically provided the talent pool for
 every critical technology use we have."
 Although the number of hams has grown considerably during the past two
 decades -- from 393,353 in 1980 to 682,240 today -- it's barely a blip when
 compared with the 140 million Internet users in the U.S. There are 21,009
 licensed hams in Michigan.
 Ham operators make contact in various ways, from bouncing radio signals off
 the moon, to two-way television, to relaying signals through their own
 satellite called OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio). Some
 hams tap out the dots and dashes of Morse code characters.
 Nobody knows for sure how the term "ham" originated. Some think it stems
 from the way they love to talk and talk -- "rag chew" in ham-speak -- or
 ham it up. Others think it's from the ham-handed " fists" needed to pound
 out code. Regardless, it's a noble hobby with a proud tradition.
 Hams came up with the concept that makes cellular phones work. They
 perfected sending information through bursts of information " packets," or
 short transmissions of data, that became the basis for the way the Internet
 sends traffic. And hams have used their communication skills to save lives
 and coordinate rescue activities.
 In fact, every time the area is put under a severe thunderstorm or tornado
 watch, hams take to the roadways and serve as volunteer spotters for the
 National Weather Service and area police departments.
 "Computers and the Internet may be nice, but I can go into any natural
 disaster situation and, with a car battery, I can be up and coordinating
 emergency efforts on ham radio with any part of the world in 5 minutes,"
 says Gaylen Minamyer, 62, of Warren. "Let's see you do that with no power,
 no cell towers and no phone lines with a computer."
 Minamyer got into the hobby as a teenager but worries that not enough young
 people are coming into the hobby. "Computers and the Internet have really
 hurt us," he says. "People want the easy way. But somebody has to be
 innovating."
 It used to be that to get an FCC license for a ham, you had to be able to
 communicate in Morse code -- at a rate of 5 words a minute for minimal
 operating privileges, and 20 words a minute for full privileges across the
 full ham bands. But in recent years, to help grow the hobby, ham
 organizations have persuaded the FCC to eliminate code requirements for
 entry-level licenses, and greatly reduced proficiency levels for others.
 Walt Gracey prefers communicating via Morse code. From his Warren house,
 the 59-year-old salesman of marine equipment is hooked on making contact by
 code with hams in the former Soviet Union.
 "I get a thrill every time I hear one come back to me," he says. "I don't
 know why I like code so much. It's that unique sound of the high-pitched
 dits and dahs and picturing someone in a land I'll never visit sending me a
 message over radio waves."
 Jim Voight is more interested in the technology. The skilled tradesmen for
 DaimlerChrysler experiments with antennas and radio transmitters. His 42-
 acre homestead in Romeo sprouts a half-dozen towers, tripods and wire
 contraptions.
 Last month, during the hobby's annual field day -- in which hams around the
 country try to get as many contacts as possible using emergency power --
 the horse pasture next to his house was filled with tents and campers,
 towers and antennas.
 "I'm in this to learn and experiment," Voight says. "One of my biggest
 thrills was sending a radio signal from my backyard to the moon, where it
 bounced off and returned to another ham's station on the other side of the
 country. That's a half-million-mile round-trip. That's really mastering
 technology."
 No one says the hobby will completely disappear. But hams worry that the
 technology innovations they pioneered in this country will not be there if
 radio hobby experimentation doesn't stay strong.
 "Hams incubated communications as we know it today," Gracey says. "Who'll
 do it for tomorrow?"


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--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV    | From the pines down to the projects,
Email: [log in to unmask] | Life pushes up through the cracks.
Phone: (972) 276-6360    | And it's only going forward,
ICQ: 36621210            | And it's never going back.--Small Potatoes